Halo-Mass Effect: Altered-Destiny
by Azores
Summary: In 2531 during the early years of the Great War, UNSC Spirit of Fire went missing and was declared lost with all hands. But what if the Spirit wasn't lost and adrift in space. What if it was sent to another Galaxy, before the Humans of this Galaxy hadn't discovered a certain set of ruins yet. How will Humanity's future change? How will the Galaxy be changed? Begins in 2100 AD.
1. In The Shadow Of Giants

UNSC SPIRIT OF FIRE /CFV-88\ PHOENIX-CLASS COLONY SHIP

BUILT: 2473  
>RETROFITTED FOR MILITARY SERVICE: 2520<br>LENGTH: 2.5 KM (8,200 FT)  
>WIDTH: 800 M (2,600 FT)<br>HULL ARMOR: 2 M OF TITANIUM-A COATED WITH TUNGSTEN  
>ARMAMENT:<br>1 LIGHT MAGNETIC ACCELERATOR CANNON (150 TONS)  
>52 50MM POINT DEFENSE GUNS<br>22 100MM DECK GUNS  
>50 ATAF MISSLE TURRETS<br>FTL DRIVE: SHAW-FUJIKAWA TRANSLIGHT ENGINE (SLIPSPACE DRIVE)  
>ENGINE: 8 THRUSTER UNITS<br>NAVAL PERSONEL: 1,500  
>MAXIMUM PESONNEL CAPACITY: 11,000 (MINUS CREW)<p>

HISTORY GUIDE:

CFV-88 ORIGINALLY WAS A COLONY SHIP THAT ASSISTED THE EXPANSION AND DEVELOPMENT OF UNSC CONTROLLED WORLDS, SUCH AS COLONIZING THE WORLD OF VERENT. IN 2520, CFV-88 WAS ACQUIRED BY THE MILITARY AND REFITTED FOR SERVICE AS A SUPPORT SHIP. CFV-88 SAW ACTION DURING THE HUMAN-COVENANT WAR'S 'HARVEST CAMPAIGN' (2526-2531). SHORTLY AFTER ASSISTING WITH EVACUATIONS ON ARCADIA, THE SHIP WENT MISSING. CFV-88 WAS DECLARED 'LOST WITH ALL HANDS' ON FEBRUARY 10, 2534.

* * *

><p><em><strong>06.11.2534 UNSC CALENDER<br>UNKNOWN STAR SYSTEM  
>UNSC SPIRIT OF FIRE CFV-88<strong>_

_/...Standby...\/...System Rebooting...\_

_/...Systems Check...\_

_/...Life Support-Online...\_

_/...Weapons Systems-Online...\_

_/...Engines-Online...WARNING-Slipspace Drive-Unavailable...\_

_/...Navigation-Online...\_

_/...Communications-Online...\_

_/...Hull Integrity-87%...\_

_/...All Systems Online...Booting Up AI SNA 1292-4 'SERINA'...\_

_/...WARNING-Unidentified Star System Scanned...\/...Civilization Detected...\_

_/...Commence Emergency Protocols...\_

_/...Begin Emergency Thaw Out Of Personnel...\_

* * *

><p><strong><em>06.11.2100 SA CALENDER<br>SOL SYSTEM, IN ORBIT OF JUPITER  
>SSV EINSTEIN-SSV-001<em>**

_/London-Command, this is SSV-Einstein\_

_/Go ahead, Einstein\_

_/Command, our long range scanners are picking up a large unidentified object just going past Saturn's orbit towards Jupiter. Be advised, object doesn't match with known celestial bodies, how copy?\_

_/Einstein, can you get a visual on the object?\_

_/Negative, Command, it should be entering visual range in approximately 20 mins\_

_/Roger, Einstein. Commence An Approach Vector Towards Object, Designate O-01, And Proceed To Observe And Sending Back Information\_

_/Roger, Command. SSV-Einstein, Out\  
><em>

* * *

><p><strong><em>HUMAN TIMELINE<em>**

04.12.1961-Yuri Gagarin aboard the Vostock 1 becomes the first human to travel in space. Humanity becomes a spacefaring race.

07.20.1969-Apollo 11 lands on Luna. Neil Armstrong becomes the first human to walk on Luna, and the first human to walk on an astronomical object other than Earth.

1991-Cold War ends with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact.

2001-2016-War on Terrorism, Middle East unites under the Arab League.

2018-Collapse of North Korea, Korea unified.

2020-2030-European Union formed, North American Republic formed, South American Coalition formed, Oceania formed

2050-The United Nations' leading superpowers, agreeing that Humanity's destiny lies in the stars, pool their collective resources and military manpower together and form the Human Systems Alliance, which will be the intergalactic political, scientific, and military branch of Humanity as a whole, as well as expand humanity by forming colonies on other planets in the Sol System and other star systems.

07.20.2069-Systems Alliance found Humanity's first colony, Armstrong Outpost, on Luna, on the 100th anniversary of the first lunar landing.

2070-2075-The Manswell Expedition to Alpha Centauri

2080-System Alliance commissions its first interplanetary vessel capable of traveling across the Sol System, the 200 meter Einstein-Class Science Vessel, SSV Einstein.

2085-The Systems Alliance now fields 5 of the Einstein-Class vessels, which help speed up the exploration of the Sol System for suitable colonies.

2092-Plans are put in place to build the Alliance's first military vessel.

2100-Present Day.

* * *

><p><strong>And now our Story begins... (Dramatic Star Trek theme plays... or Star Wars whichever you prefer) ;P<strong>

**As you can see a bit of a different beginning For the Systems Alliance and they already have a spacecraft but no FTL drive. We're having the beginning of mass effect humans be a little different. Anyway enjoy.**


	2. Were You Expecting Little Green Men?

**I don't own Halo or Mass Effect**

**Bold-My Own Words**

**_Bold & Italic-Locations, Time & Calendar_**

Normal-Narrative

"Normal"-Person Speaking

'Normal'-Thoughts

_"Italic"-Foreign Languague_

_'Italic'-Radio Chatter_

_/Italic\-AI/Computer typing_

_**06.11.2534 UNSC Calendar  
>Uncharted Star System<br>UNSC Spirit of Fire-=-CFV-88**_

Silence. That's all she heard, At first. But she knew better than to just assume that nothing was going on. She already knew that they were on a collision course with a celestial body. An easily solved problem, but not the only one they had at the moment. She scanned over the information and discovered some interesting details. First off, they were heading for a moon orbiting the planet, a gas-giant with rings. What struck her as odd is that they looked incredibly familiar. They looked almost like... No, it couldn't be, but it was. Saturn. They were home. But something was wrong. She needed to awaken the crew. A holographic screen popped in front of her, to which she proceeded to type in the commands.

_/Commence Thaw Out Of Key Personnel\_

* * *

><p><em><strong>Cryogenic Deck A1<strong>_

The Cryogenic Decks, where every one of the Spirit of Fire's Cryo-Pods were stationed at, roared to life as thousands of pods began the process of thawing out. One pod, CP-00001, was already thawed out, though had yet to open. The man inside, tall, lean build, with black hair that was graying, and a wrinkled face that showed his 48 year age, slowly stirred awake. _'C__aptain, wake up. Something has happened.' _He heard over the intercoms. Captain James Gregory Cutter awoke and looked outside from within the pod. He groaned, "Where are we, Serina?" Nearby on a holo-pedestal, a hologram appear, showing itself as a young woman with long hair, with a slender body covered by a lab coat. Serina spoke up, "Well, we're in a star system. But, the star system is odd. In truth, it'll be better if you see for yourself."

Captain Cutter looked around at the other crew members who were stepping out of their own pods. He adjusted his uniform, making sure there were no wrinkles and that he looked presentable to the rest of his crew. After finishing this, he proceeded to the elevator to take him up to the bridge. Serina popped up on the holo-pedestal inside the elevator. The elevator doors closed and ascended up to the bridge. "So, enjoy your nap?" Serina joked. Cutter loosened up his stance and sighed, "How long were we out?" Was the war still going on? Had Humanity won? Was there even a Humanity left? "3 years, 3 months, and 14 days." Her reply brought him out of his deep thought. 3 years? That didn't sit right with him. It meant either two things. One, they were far, far away from friendly territory. Or, the war was going badly and they could spare manpower searching.

"Someone should have found us by now." He said, narrowing his eyes.

_**Bridge**_

"Someone did," Came Serina's reply, catching his attention once more. " A small vessel, about 200 meters in length, is approaching us, from about 70,000 km. We should be getting a visual in about 15 minutes." The elevator reached the bridge, the doors opening to reveal people manning the various stations of the bridge. In the center was a large holo-pad, where Serina's hologram was present along with a model of what Captain Cutter could only assume was their curious visitor. "Is it Covenant?"

"Negative, at least, I don't think so. It doesn't match any known Covenant configurations. Plus, according to the data, it has only four low caliber weapons." a technician spoke, typing in and observing new information on a handheld data-pad. "Four weapons? Can't possibly be a military vehicle. It must a science or civilian vessel." One of the Ensigns spoke from the communications panels. "We don't know that for certain, however i would put money on that suggestion, Captain. If I had any." Serina stated, observing the model on the holo-pad.

"In any rate, get the secondary weapons up and running. What the status of the MAC?" Cutter spoke. Better safe than sorry if they turned out to be hostile. Considering their situation, he was seriously hoping they weren't. "Sir, MAC gun is good to go, but we'll need to warm it up first." The weapon-master spoke from the weapons panels. Cutter nodded, "Good. Go ahead and warm it up." He turned to the hologram of the unknown ship, "And lets just hope we get lucky."

Realizing something, he turned to Serina and asked, "Where is Professor Anders?"

* * *

><p><em><strong>Cryogenic Deck A2<br>CP-04720**_

She felt weightless. Adrift in a sea of emptiness. She could hear... something, someone speaking to her. But she couldn't hear them. It was almost a mere whisper in the wind. She tried to concentrate on the voice, but couldn't make it out any better. This wasn't a normal dream.

She was suddenly bombarded with images. Images of creatures fighting monstrous abominations, heavily outnumber and being overwhelmed, despite the fact they killed scores of the monsters with beam-like weapons. She quickly realized the monstrous creatures were Flood forms. Numerous images of the creatures fighting the flood on numerous worlds and in space.

She could hear a voice whispering, "...easure failed to contain the Flood, my creators were forced to use their weapons of last resort to cleanse the galaxy of them. The Halo Arrays."

The images changed to an enormous space battle, a clash of forces, though one side's ships had strange organic growths covering them. She could only assume this was the Flood. Millions of ships were involved, firing back at one another. Dozen of explosions were going off every second. Suddenly in the distant space, a great flash of light formed and expanded outward engulfing everything in its path, including the armada of ships battling.

"But this is no longer you or your companions' concern."

The image changed to a different part of space. A small planet could be seen. She recognized it as the Sol System's Pluto, but Charon was missing. In its place, was a strange machine, two large curved metal arms. These arms surrounded a set of revolving, gyroscopic rings that had a glowing, blue core. It was the largest artificial object she had ever seen, even larger than a Covenant Assault Carrier, which were upwards of 6 kilometers long. This 'fork' was easily 2 or 2 and a half times as large.

"What is it?" She asked. "A technology that will lead to this galaxy's humans to a path of stagnation." several voices whispered.

She then saw a different image. A photo of a planet under siege. People were fleeing from metallic abominations, soldiers fighting the metal monsters. And then, the shook, and a colossal roar was heard, belong to a monstrous ship or machine, she wasn't even sure. It looked like a gigantic squid. It raised two of its 'arms', revealing a glowing red eye that burned brightly and fired a molten beam down on the soldiers below. "And to their extinction." the voices continued. "But you and your ship, your technology... _our technology_ will change their destiny. This _Galaxy's_ destiny."

She looked around as the scene faded away. "Who are you?' she finally asked. She was met with silence. She looked around. "...Hello?"

Suddenly, she was assaulted with a thousand voices at once, screaming at the top of their lungs, making her clutch her head in agony, "NOW FREED FROM MY PRISON, THE CHAINS ARE CAST ASIDE, AND MY OWN FATE IS RETURNED TO MY HANDS! I AM MENDICANT BIAS, AND THE ATONEMENT OF MY SINS BEGINS NOW! HUMANITY'S PATH TO THE MANTLE SHALL NOT BE STOPPED! THE RECLAMATION OF THE FORERUNNER'S LEGACY HAS BEGUN! AND THE REAPERS WILL BE POWERLESS TO STOP IT!"

The voices stopped screaming, much to her relief. Before everything faded to black, she heard the voice spoke one last time, "I leave the rest to you, Ellen Anders."

* * *

><p><em><strong>06.11.2100 SA Calendar<strong>_**_  
>Saturn Orbit, En Route To O-01<br>SSV Einstein-SSV-001  
>Bridge<em>**

The Systems Science Vessel 'Einstein' (SSV-001) was Humanity's first interplanetary spacecraft capable of traveling throughout the Sol System. The 200 meters, angular sloped designed vessel was the pride of Humanity, representing just how far Humanity has come in just the past 100 years alone. She was by no means a military vessel. Granted, the four 200mm dual-railguns that were placed along the ships sides were powerful, but were more for keeping stray comets and asteroid bits away from the hull.

_'But this thing isn't an Asteroid.' _The captain of the vessel thought. Captain Nicu Pavlenco was a fairly built man, roughly 5'10", 150 pounds. His skin was lightly tanned, with red hair and green eyes. The 42 year old Romanian joined the Alliance navy when he was 20 years old, and to this day he still considers it one of the best choices he ever made. The Alliance military gave him a purpose in life he didn't have before. And now he may very well be the first human to explore an alien object. Weather this would help humanity or be the beginning of their downfall, he didn't know.

But there was only on way to find out.

"How much longer, Helmsmen?" He asked, his Romanian accent thick but clear enough to understand. "We should be entering visual range in about 5 minutes, Captain." Came the reply. He turned over to another officer on the bridge. "Ensign Holmes, what's the status of the probes we launched?" Ensign Rebecca Holmes surveyed the video feed from the two exploratory probes they launched ahead of them. Removing a loose strain of her blonde hair from in front of her light brown eyes, she turned from the screens and spoke, "Sir, probes will be with in visual in 30 seconds."

"Sir, scanners are picking up activity from the object. Electronic activity. Looks like O-01 is artificial in nature after all." Another Officer, a Chief Petty Officer, spoke up from another panel. Pavlenco nodded at the new information as the situation developed. "Bring the guns to bare and ready to fire, just in case." The Petty Officer in charge of the weapons system responded with, "Yes, Sir." and rotated the four dual-railguns towards the front where O-01 was. Both men knew that in all actuality, the guns would do little to save them if this thing turned out to be hostile. But Pavlenco wasn't going to go down without a fight, if he had any say.

Stepping up next to the Captain, Lieutenant Conrad Hackett looked over to his Commanding Officer, wonder how the man could stay so calm in this situation. Conrad had joined the Alliance Military 10 years ago, to support his new family. 5'11", 170 pounds, with black hair and piercing blue eyes. With a wife and a newborn child currently on the way, he wasn't too happy about being here at the moment but understood the significance of their mission. He finally spoke up to the Captain, "Penny for your thoughts, Sir?"

Captain Pavlenco looked over to the Lieutenant, smiling, and half-joked, "Just hoping we don't get blown to kingdom come on a possible first contact." Both men chuckled, even though they both realized that was a strongly possible outcome. Humanity had always been fascinated with the idea of aliens and life on other planets, but no-one on the SSV-Einstein realized that what was about to happen next, would send ripples throughout the rest of Human history.

"Probes entering visual range in three, two, one.." Ensign Holmes spoke, gaining the attention of the crew. "Put it on the large screen, Ensign." The Captain spoke, wanting to see what this thing was finally. When the large screen flipped on, what Nicu Pavlenco saw next left him speechless.

On the screen was a massive ship, blocky but with some angled sloops to it. If he had to guess, the ship was at least two kilometers long, probably longer, he just knew it dwarfed his ship. As a career military man, he could already tell this was a warship of some kind, noticing several gun emplacements on the side. He could see lights blinking and some illumination on what he assumed were decks. _'Okay so definitely not derelict, time to try and initiate contact.' _Captain Pavlenco thought, trying his best to calm himself. "Steady yourself. We've planned and trained for scenarios like this. Comms, prepare First Contact package. Helmsmen, keep our current course steady." He spoke aloud, gaining the attention of the crew and motioning them to continue manning their stations. "Captain?" Holmes spoke up. "What is it, Ensign?" He replied, but she was simply looking at the screen. He followed her gaze and what he saw next left him speechless.

More of the massive ship came out of the darkness, revealing letters on the side. _English_ letters that read out:

**UNSC SPIRIT OF FIRE-CFV-88  
><strong>

* * *

><p><em><strong>UNSC Spirit Of Fire<br>Bridge**_

"What do you mean we're in the Sol System, but there's no UNSC transponders being picked up?" Cutter asked dumbfounded. Serina had just told him that they were back home in the Sol System, but she couldn't pick up any UNSC signals. "It's exactly how I told you sir. It's like the UNSC doesn't existed here." She stated, looking over the data in front of her. Cutter couldn't deny what the data was showing in front of him. They were in the Sol System and in Saturn's orbit, but there was no sign of the UNSC anywhere in system. And to top it off, they had an unknown vessel approaching them. Granted, it was smaller, but Cutter knew first hand size wasn't everything.

"Serina, tap into the enemy ship, see if you can get some information on our 'neighbors'." The Captain barked out. "Already have, Sir. And I've got some information on our 'neighbors' that we'll all find interesting." The ships AI replied, showing numerous data streams up on the holo-pad. "Sir, I'd like to introduce you to the Human Systems Alliance."

Captain Cutter arched an eyebrow. "The what?"

A large projection appeared on the Holo-pad. Serina began, "Apparently, for them the year is 2100, according to our neighbor's data banks that i hacked into. In the year 2050, the leading Superpowers of the United Nations pooled their resources together and formed the Human Systems Alliance, basically their version of the UNSC. These Humans have a small colony on Luna, but nothing else, so their just in the earliest stages of colonization. As I said before, we are at Earth, just not the one we're familiar with." She finished, projecting more data onto the holo-pad.

* * *

><p><em>Systems Alliance-Earth\_

_/Founded: 04.11.2050\_

_/Government: Democracy\_

_/Population: 11.07 Billion\_

_/Total Military Manpower: 46.23 Million\_

_/Total Number of Space-Faring Ships: 20\_

_/Colonies: 1 (Luna, 'Armstrong City')\_

* * *

><p>Cutter looked over the data again and again, his min still trying to process the fact that there was another Earth, with another group of humans. "Captain, orders?" One of the Officers spoke. Cutter went over their options in his head. One option was to continue trying to contact the UNSC, which he was starting to question if they even existed anymore, and hope they picked up. Option two, which was not at all an option, was fight. They could be hostile for all he knew. Then there was option three, join forces, which could be considered traitorous by the UNSC, but he saw no better option for the guaranteed safety of his crew.<p>

After minutes of postulating options and choices he could make, Captain Cutter made his decision.

"Even if it's not the UNSC, we're still bound by our duty to defend Earth and her Colonies. Open comms with the ship." Cutter ordered finally. The crew immediately went about with their assignments. While many of them were questioning the legitimacy of this whole scenario and what was going on, none of them dared question the Captain's orders. He was one of the few people who had their complete trust and loyalty.

Captain Cutter could only hope now he was making the right choice.

* * *

><p><em><strong>SSV-Einstein<br>**__**Bridge**_

The name read out in head over and over again, and he couldn't take his eyes off what he was seeing. **UNSC SPIRIT OF FIRE-CFV-88. **Hackett couldn't get over what he was seeing. Plain English text and numerical. But how? That shouldn't be possible for these aliens to know English. But then again, they could have been studying Humanity for a while, learning the dialects and cultures. But _Spirit of Fire_? Seemed a little fancy and showy for a name.

"Captain, we're being hailed." Ensign Holmes spoke. "By who?" She turned and looked her Captain in the eyes, "The xeno-ship, sir." Everyone stopped and held their collective breath. This was it, First Contact with an alien race. After a short pause, Captain Pavlenco spoke up, "Patch it through." The moment of truth was here.

A few seconds of silence filled the air before a voice spoke up through the intercoms, 'SSV-Einstein,_ this is the UNSC Spirit of Fire, we come in peace, over.'_ Cheers erupted from the bridge as they received the sudden message_. _Captain Pavlenco breathed out a sigh of relief, allowing a small trace of a smile to form on his lips. He walked over to the console and responded in kind, _'Spirit of Fire, this is the Captain of the SSV-Einstein, you have no idea how relieved we are to hear those words, over.' _He could hear a short chuckle on the other end, _'SSV-Einstein, completely understandable. SSV-Einstein, we're going to position ourselves so we can have our ships side by side, over.'_

The Captain of the Alliance Vessel looked away for a second, deep in thought, before turning back to the console, _'Spirit of Fire, do you mind if I ask how you speak English so well? You speak it better than some of my own people, over.' _He half joked on the last part, but was rather curious to how they speak English so well. There was some silence of the other end for a while before a voice spoke up. _'SSV-Einstein, can you keep a secret, over?' _Pavlenco pondered this for a few seconds, before deciding to humor the Xeno-Captain, _'It depends on the secret, Captain. What is your secret, over?'_

_'Because the reason I speak English so well, is because we're human beings.'  
><em>

* * *

><p><strong><em>9th Age of Reclamation<br>Uncharted Star System, Near Garden World  
>51,000 Light Years From Sol System<em>**

In a Star System far from any Civilization, laid a Garden World, fourth planet from the star in system, and with two moons orbiting it. Vast continents covered in lush red forests and gigantic bright blue oceans spanned the planet. It was a beautiful planet just waiting for someone to come and claim it as their own. And that day was now. In the space around the planet, multiple white dots popped into existence, small and insignificant at first glance, but anyone in the UNSC would tell you otherwise what nightmare was to come next. The small dots expanded into massive swirling portals, revealing themselves to be the notorious Slipspace Ruptures of the most infamous enemy humanity had ever face.

Out of one of the voids came the figure of a massive Covenant Assault Carrier, the CAS Walk of Divinity.

6 kilometers of fury and death, the Covenant Assault Carriers were the mainstay Capital Ships of the Covenant Navy. Equipped with multiple Pulse Laser Turrets, Plasma Torpedo launchers, and two of the infamous Energy Projectors, Assault Carriers are the bane of any UNSC commander. Capable of carrying tens of thousands of soldiers into battle. In other words, a single Assault Carrier can launch an invasion of a planet and have enough troops to hold ground until reinforcements arrive.

At the moment, however, the CAS Walk of Divinity was in no condition to fight at the moment, for it and everyone of the over 100 ships that arrived through the portals were heavily damaged and/or on fire in some places.

**Bridge**

_"What is the status of the fleet?" _A large and imposing Sangheili Fleetmaster spoke to his crew in his native tongue. He was over 8 feet tall, and weighed a good 350 pounds. His dark grey skin glistened in the light of the Bridge. But he wasn't in a good mood. Fleetmaster Hurok Wattinree had just watched 200 ships get destroyed by one human ship. _One. _He was furious not only with that damned Human Admiral, but also himself for not seeing such a blatant and obvious trap. And his soldiers had paid the price for his poor judgement. An emergency Slipspace jump had been the only thing that had saved them. He roared in rage, _"Damn you, ADMIRAL COLE!" _

_"Fleetmaster, I have the status for our surviving fleet, as requested." _One of the Sangheili Officers spoke, informing the Fleetmaster of the task completion. Hurok walked over to the Officer and nodded, before looking at the holo-pad's projection.

_/First Fleet of the Divine Fury\_

_/Total Ships: 156\_

_/Numbers Based On Class:  
><em>

_CAS Assault Carrier: 4_

_ORS Heavy Cruiser: 17 (1 Total Loss)_

_Battleships: 20 (Warning, All Crews Are Reporting That All But 5 Battleships Are Total Losses And Should Be Scrapped.)_

_CPV Heavy Destroyer: 30 (2 Total Losses)_

_CCS Battlecruiser: 40 (5 Total Losses)_

_SDV Heavy Corvette: 18_

_Agriculture Ships: 24 (2 Total Losses)_

_Warning, All Ships Have Moderate To Severe Damage. Recommend Immediate Refit And Repair.\_

_/Total Number Of Soldiers: 32,750,000 (Excluding Lekgolo and Huragok)_

_Unggoy: 16,450,000  
><em>

_Kig-Yar: 9,750,000_

_Sangheili: 6,550,000_

_/Alert. Habitable Planet Nearby. Recommend Takeover And Temporary Colonization In Order To Repair Fleet.\_

After reading over the information, the Fleetmaster turned to his left and spoke, _"Auburn Harmony, contact home command and alert them of our situation." _The AI of the Divinity appeared on the pad, its avatar being nothing more than glowing blue orb, which illuminated when it spoke, _"Negative, I am unable to contact our superiors." _Horuk narrowed his reptilian eyes in annoyance. He had lost over two thirds of his fleet and the last thing he was wanting to deal with was a defiant AI. _"Explain, Harmony."_

_"I cannot detect any Covenant Transponders or Communications Relays. It is as if our Covenant has vanished into thin air."_ The AI's response confused Horuk. The Covenant vanished? Impossible. The Covenant Empire spans over 800 Star Systems, boasts a combine population of tens of billions from seven different races, and has thousands of ships and billions of warriors. How could such a massive Empire up and vanish? But that could wait. Right now, Several Million Soldiers needed guidance. _"Open a fleet wide tramission. Order all ship to the planet to begin refitting and repairs." _Hurok didn't know what was going on with the inability to contact the rest of the Covenant, but he knew one thing.

The Covenant would rise again.

* * *

><p><em><strong>HUMAN TIMELINE<strong>_

06.11.2100-SSV Einstein makes contact with the UNSC Spirit of Fire. The Board of Directors are alerted to the information almost immediately after contact is made. Captain Cutter stats that he will tell them everything if he is allowed an audience with the President and the rest of Parliament. The President decides to allow the meeting.

06.11.2100-Professor Ellen Anders is found unconscious right outside of her Cryo-pod, and is taken to medical immediately. She wakes up 2 days later, but doesn't remember what happened to cause her to collapse. She is medically screened and declared healthy and mentally fit for duty and released from medical.

06.18.2100-1 week later, UNSC Spirit of Fire makes it to Earth. Upmost secrecy is kept about the ship's existence, with the entire crew of the SSV-Einstein taking an Oath of Secrecy. A cover story is made that the science vessel was exploring Saturn's moons for possible future colonization. UNSC personnel are greeted to an Earth different from their own.

06.19.2100-Captain Cutter and several other high ranking personnel, including Ellen Anders, of the UNSC meet the President of the System Alliance, President Carlos Santiago, along with Parliament. During the meeting, Captain Cutter, Professor Anders, and AI Serina explain the history of the UNSC, from the Rainforest Wars, the invention of the Slipspace Drive, the Insurrectionist Movement, The Covenant War, which causes some concern for the Board as they grow concerned for the possibility of a hostile first encounter. After explaining the history of the UNSC, and Parliament debating on what to do with this new information and technology, Captain Cutter request that the Spirit of Fire and her personnel be integrated into the System Alliance Military so they can continue to defend Earth and her colonies. President Santiago agrees to this proposal, realizing the incredible gift they've been bestowed and the potential it could give Humanity.

06.21-08.05.2100-The UNSC Spirit of Fire commences with repair to the hull from damage sustained in a previous engagement, while Alliance personnel go through and study the advance technology of the ship while AI Serina provides Alliance Scientists the theories of Slipspace travel, the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon and the Orbital Defense Platform, along with multiple technologies and industial/political doctrines that will help the Alliance run more smoothly and efficiently. The technological leap jumps humanity forward by almost 300 years. The only problem is that the Alliance doesn't have the basic materials or concept of Slipspace in order to build a workable drive.

2100-The Alliance Military is unsure of what do about Spartan RED team, so it is decided that all but the highest ranking members of Military and Parliament will be kept in the dark about their existence. They are to remained stationed on the Spirit of Fire, and are only called up for the most secretive of missions.

08.15.2100-The SSV-Spirit of Fire 'Dreadnought' and SSV-Athens Frigate, an 420 meter war ship and the Alliance's actually warship they had been constructing, is announced to the world as Humanity's first military space vessel. The ships are received with mostly positive feedback.

Mid-2102-2105-SSV Spirit of Fire assists in the founding of Mars' first colonies, Lowell City, Halvo Bay, and New Geneva. With the vast knowledge of terraforming, SSV Spirit of Fire also preforms minor terraforming operations in the Atmosphere and North Pole of the red planet, melting the ice caps and allowing Mars to become breathable within a few years, along with the ability to support minor plant life.

2102-2103-The first of multiple Orbital Drydocks are commissioned to build up humanity's fleet of future starships. Over a Dozen more stations are in various stages of completion.

Early-2102-After multiple testing on the designs in comparison to home made designs, several UNSC weapons are adopted into the Alliance Military, including the MA5, M392 DMR, M90, and the SRS99C-AM. Other designs from the UNSC are still going through testing and reverse-engineering.

Early-2102-Instead of incorporating the design into the Alliance Military, R&D decides to use the Scorpion MBTs as a test bed and a starting point for new designs to replace the aging M3A3 "Custer" MBT. The Alliance Military, however, decide to incorporate the M12 'Warthog' into their Military forces.

Early-2102-The Longsword Fighter-Bomber are sent to R&D to study and use as a starting point for future designs models, while the Pelican Dropships are adopted into the Alliance Military, and are approved for mass-production. All Athens-Class Frigates will carry at least 4 Pelicans for rapid response and deployment of Marine forces.

Early-2103-Several Mining Colonies are set up on Saturn's Moon Titan and Jupiter's Moon Callisto to mine the heavy metals that will be needed for future ships and colonies.

Early-Mid-2103-Three more Athens-Class Frigate is commissioned, the SSV-Cairo, Sydney, and Buenos Aires. 15 more are planned for the forseeable future and are expected to stay in service for at least 20 years.

Mid-2103-Alliance Military count has surpassed 50 million in all branches. Alliance R&D have commissioned several naval designs, including frigates, destroyers, cruisers, and colony ships. Military HighCom agree that the Spirit of Fire will probably be their only 'Dreadnought' for several years. Wanting to expand their domain, Alliance Command decides to focus on colony ships, then military vessels.

Late-2103-UNSC AI Serina begins to fall into the early stages of AI Rampancy and ,with some sadness from the UNSC Personnel, is decommissioned. Out of respect, her name is added to a wall dedicated to all the Spirit of Fire personnel who have lost their lives in service of Humanity. The walls current count is 1,417. Her core processor is studied by Alliance R&D so they can build AIs of their own in the future.

Early-2104-The first of the Odysseus-Class Colony Ships, the SSV-Odysseus, roughly 1200 meters in length, is commissioned by the Alliance Navy. Unlike the old UNSC Colony ships, Odysseus-Class are equipped with several missile and guns emplacements on the side to double as a Support Ship, capable of transporting large numbers of Marines to assault planets. Each ship is to be equipped with at least 20 Pelican dropships.

Early-2104-An prototype of the UNSC's Slipspace drive is finished and ready for testing. The device is fitted onto an old Einstein-Class vessel, the Galileo, with UNSC personnel crewing the ship, due to their years of expertise with Slipspace technology. The test is commenced on the 11th of February. The Galileo commences to open a Slipspace Portal, which is suppose to take them to Jupiter, and proceeds to go through it. 29 seconds later, the Galileo reappears near Jupiter's moon, Europa. The mission is declared a resounding success in human technological advancement.

Early-Mid-2104-Following the success of the Galileo mission, several more test and improvements are made to the Slipspace drives over the next several months. Every Alliance ship 300 meters and over are equipped with a Slipspace drive. The drives are capable of 11 LYD (Light Years a Day). Millions sign up to become potential colonists as the Alliance prepare to send out ships to colonize local star systems.

09.04.2104-All five Odysseus-Class Colony Ships, with two Athens-Class each as escort and security, commence jumps to colonize nearby star systems, including Alpha Centauri B and Epsilon Eridani. 10 hours later, the SSV-Hercules, which was sent to colonize Alpha Centauri B, sends a message back to HighCom with one single sentence in the message. _/The Eagle Has Landed.\ _Humanity celebrates all across the Sol System as the Human race become an interstellar civilization, and more reports of successful colonization are reported through the rest of the week.

New Year-2105-Humanity has a total of 12 colonies throughout the Local Interstellar Cloud, the largest being Epsilon Eridani's 'Reach', a large garden world with an atmosphere perfect for human habitation. Other notable colonies are Alpha Centauri B's 'Columbus', a fairly large planet still being terraformed for a breathable and habitable atmosphere, and Sirius' 'Terra Nova', another garden world.

Early-2105-The first Alliance Destroyer, the SSV-Gettysburg, a 560 meter warship, is commissioned. More heavily armored and armed than the Athens-Class Frigates, the Gettysburg is also equipped with the first 'true' MAC guns built by the Alliance Military, 150 ton MAC guns based off the Spirit of Fire's own MAC gun. Each one is to be equipped with 8 Pelicans for Planetary Insertion of Marines.

Early-2105-Alliance Military commissions plans to develop their own ODST, and build up an ODST boot camp on Earth and Reach to create their own ODST core and commenced to design possible orbital insertion vehicles for transport of the ODST soldiers. The project is overseen by the UNSC's own ODST soldiers and is already showing much promise.

Mid-2105-A UNSC transponder signal is picked up by the Alliance originating from the Epsilon Indi A system. The SSV-Spirit of Fire, along with 4 Athens-Frigates, goes to investigate the signal.

* * *

><p>SSV-ATHENS-CLASS FRIGATE (LIGHT SCREEN SHIP)<p>

BUILT: 2100  
>LENGTH: 420 M<br>WIDTH: 150 M  
>HULL ARMOR: 0.5 M OF TITANIUM-A COATED WITH TUNGSTEN<br>ARMAMENT:  
>2 MINI-MAC (50 TONS)<br>32 50MM POINT DEFENSE GUNS  
>16 100MM DECK GUNS<br>12 ATAF MISSILE PODS  
>FTL DRIVE: ALLIANCE 'HELIOS' SLIPSPACE DRIVE<br>ENGINE: 4 THRUSTER UNITS  
>NAVAL PERSONNEL: 700<br>MAXIMUM PERSONNEL CAPACITY: 4,000 (EXCLUDING CREW)

* * *

><p>SSV-GETTYSBURG-CLASS DESTROYER (HEAVY SCREEN SHIP)<p>

BUILT: 2105  
>LENGTH: 560 M<br>WIDTH: 220 M  
>HULL ARMOR: 1.2 M OF TITANIUM-A COATED WITH TUNGSTEN<br>ARMAMENT:  
>1 ALLIANCE MAC GUN (150 TONS)<br>40 50MM POINT DEFENSE GUNS  
>20 100MM DECK GUNS<br>18 ATAF MISSILE PODS  
>FTL DRIVE: ALLIANCE 'HELIOS' SLIPSPACE DRIVE<br>ENGINE: 4 THRUSTER UNITS  
>NAVAL PERSONNEL: 950<br>MAXIMUM PERSONNEL CAPACITY: 5,500 (EXCLUDING CREW)

* * *

><p>SSV-ODYSSEUS-CLASS COLONYSUPPORT SHIP

BUILT: 2104  
>LENGTH: 1200 M<br>WIDTH: 400 M  
>HULL ARMOR: 2 M OF TITANIUM-A COATED WITH TUNGSTEN<br>ARMAMENT:  
>40 50MM POINT DEFENSE GUNS<br>30 100MM DECK GUNS  
>22 ATAF MISSILE PODS<br>FTL DRIVE: ALLIANCE 'HELIOS' SLIPSPACE DRIVE  
>ENGINE: 6 THRUSTER UNITS<br>NAVAL PERSONNEL: 1,200  
>MAXIMUM PERSONNEL CAPACITY: 10,000 (EXCLUDING CREW)<p>

* * *

><p><strong>And that's it for Chapter One, hope you guys liked it. I would also like to go ahead and point out somethings that will be different from the Canon. First off The MAC gun's strength as followed.<br>50 ton Mini-MAC: 150 km/s with a KE of 134.44 Kilotons of TNT  
>150 ton MAC: 100 kms with a KE of 179.25 Kilotons of TNT  
>300 ton MAC: 75 kms with a KE of 201.66 Kilotons of TNT  
>600 ton MAC: 60 kms with a KE of 258.13 Kilotons of TNT  
>3000 ton Super-MAC (ODP): 12000 kms with a KE of 5.1625e7 Kilotons of TNT  
>The MAC guns are now faster in terms of projectile speed, except for the Super MAC. Basically, the Alliance have an armor and firepower advantage over others, while the council has speed and rate of fire.<strong>

**Second off, Master Chief will not make an appearance in this story. There are enough of those stories where he gets sent to the mass effect universe, and dont get me wrong, most of them are very well written (Im looking at you, THE LAST SPARTAN, great story go check it out.) but I'm honestly tired of reading those, so I'm going with a different approach to the Halo/Mass Effect crossover. I'm still debating if Jorge will make an appearance or not.**

**Third off, the Flood will also more than likely not make an appearance in this story. This is the Mass Effect Galaxy, the Reapers are the main villians, not the Flood.**

**Fourth off, as you could see, the Covenant will be in this story as well, and I think the fans will like what's going to be done with them, especially when they have their first contact with a certain Citadel race. (Give you a hint, it's not one of the Ruling races ie Turians, Asari, Salarians.)**

**Also, I would like to point out that Humanity will not have contact with the other races for quite some time, so these chapters will be several stories going on at the same time in the Galaxy.**

**Anyway enough rambling, hope you enjoy the story.**


	3. A Legend's Return And Making Friends

**Hey guys, Azores here. Just wanna say thank you for all your support and wanted to point something out real quick. First off, Thank you very much for the massive amount of support you've given. Secondly, I would like to address a couple things brought up in the reviews. **

**Firstly, the founding of the Systems Alliance is different than from the Canon, you would notice this if you read the first chapter's timeline. **

**Secondly, you guys are completely right about the time it takes to build ships and such, my bad. (lol) I'll make sure this doesn't happen in the future and try to be more realistic with ship building. But don't expect the ships to take 9 years to build or so lol, we're on a bit of a time table for first contact. **

**Thirdly, one gentleman stated that i had my facts wrong about the speed in which the MAC round fires. You are correct, it does travel at 30000 meters a sec. Meters. There are 1000 meters in a kilometer. 30000 meters. 30 kilometers. Very slow compared to the Council's Mass Accelerators, which you were correct about, my bad. However, compared to the MAC gun, those mass accelerators would gut UNSC ships before they could get a single shot off, which is why I increased the speed, but at the same time they're not ridicoulusly overpowered****.**

**But never the less, i still enjoyed the constructive criticism and always welcome it.**

* * *

><p><strong>Anyway, back to the story. Enjoy.<strong>

**I don't own Halo or Mass Effect**

**Bold-My Own Words**

**_Bold & Italic-Locations, Time & Calendar_**

Normal-Narrative

"Normal"-Person Speaking

'Normal'-Thoughts

_"Italic"-Foreign Languague_

_'Italic'-Radio Chatter_

_/Italic\-AI/Computer typing_

* * *

><p><em>SYSTEMS ALLIANCE INFORMATION\_

_Total Number Of Ships: 35  
>Athens-Class: 24<br>Gettysburg-Class: 3  
>Spirit of Fire-Class: 1<br>Odysseus-Class: 7_

_Total Military Personnel: 51.47 Million_

_Total Number of Colonies: 14_

_Notable Colonies:_

_Epsilon Eridani: Reach (Garden World, developing to be Military Command of the Alliance, also large quantities of Titanium in system.)  
>Alpha Centauri B: Columbus (Terraforming)<br>Sirius: Terra Nova (Garden World)  
>Luhman 16: Jarvis 1 (Mining World, with large metal deposits.)<em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>05.23.2105<br>****Epsilon Indi A system  
><strong>_**_SSV-Spirit of Fire_**

"Exiting Slipspace in 5, 4, 3, 2..." The Navigations Officer spoke as the Spirit of Fire exited Slipspace and entered the Epsilon Indi System. Rear Admiral Cutter looked at the holographic projection of the Epsilon Indi System. It was different from the one he was familiar with. The lack of planet Harvest, for starters, replaced with an light orange colored planet, two other rocky planets, and a few gas giants. It would be right at about this point that Serina would pipe in with a joke. He allowed himself to think back on the long gone AI. Like many others, James had also been saddened by the death of Serina, even though he had accepted its inevitability long ago.

But it didn't make it any less painful to lose a family member.

He buried these thoughts. He had a job to do. He could reminisce on the past later. "Ensign, where's the signal coming from?" Cutter spoke up. If this really was UNSC, then maybe home wasn't gone. Maybe it was still out there, waiting for them to return. For some reason, though, he had his doubts.

Ensign Holmes had been reassigned to the Spirit of Fire after the Einstein was decommissioned. She never dreamed she would be working on the Pride of the Alliance Fleet. When she first met Rear Admiral Cutter, she had never been as intimidated by an Officer as she had when approached her. His approached had shown one of authority and pride. But he had turned out to be a polite and genuinely caring Commander, even if he was a little strict when it came to maintaining crew discipline.

"Sir, the signal is coming from the orbit of the Gas Giant closest to the star. We should be able to reach it in roughly 35 minutes." She replied to her CO. Her fingers danced across the keyboard as she typed in new info and data on the star system as she received it from the other Alliance ships.

Affirmative, Captain. Proceed with reconnaissance of planet for future colonization efforts, over.'"Good. Navs, set a course for the object. SSV-Boston, Sydney, and Johannesburg, I want you on our flanks and front, standard screen, over." Cutter barked out the orders. Three replies of _'Yes, sir.' _came up over the comms.

_'SSV-Spirit of Fire, this is Captain Hackett of the Minsk, requesting permission to commence scouting mission to the third planet for possible colonization in the future, over.' _

Admiral Cutter pondered this for a moment. Despite the massive jump in and relative ease of transition to the new technology, the Systems Alliance almost went bankrupt with the amount of spending it had done in the past five years. The inflation of the Systems Dollar, luckily, had only gone up by 11%, which wasn't as terrible as some had feared it would, but dissent and the occasional protest from unhappy citizens were still present. Luckily, it had been dying down in the past few months. Despite all this, the Alliance Parliament decided that they should cut back on the massive spending spree and build up what they already have aquired. Therefore, colonization of new planets would have to wait. That didn't mean private corporations wouldn't colonize new worlds, but the Alliance was on hold for the moment.

But Admiral Cutter always did like how Hackett was eager to prove himself. He had a lot of promise.

Conrad Hackett had been promoted to Captain only two years ago, after showing incredible potential and results during several war game simulation and during an attack by a terrorist cell in London who were trying to assassinate members of Parliament. It had only been stopped by the timely arrival of Hackett and a platoon of Marines. He had been up for consideration beforehand, but after the Geneva Incident, and recommendation by Cutter and now Rear Admiral Pavlenco, who were both promoted to Rear Admiral 2 years after 'first contact', pretty much sealed the deal, and he was promoted and given his own ship.

"Affirmative, Captain. Proceed with reconnaissance of planet for future colonization efforts, over."_  
><em>

_'Roger, Minsk's setting course for third planet to commence reconnaissance, ETA 49 minutes, out.'_

The Minsk sped off from the formation. Admiral Cutter turned back to the Holo-pad's projection of the Gas Giant. It was massive, large than Jupiter, with 3 moons orbiting it. He could see the location of the transponder signal, just in orbit of the second moon. "Alright, Weapons, warm up the MAC gun. Just in case." The Admiral ordered. He wasn't expecting anything to happen, but that didn't mean something wouldn't happen. Better safe than sorry.

"Let's just see what this is." He muttered under his breath.

* * *

><p><em><strong>9th Age Of Reclamation (05.23.2105)<br>Unnamed Star System, Garden World  
>51,000 Light Years From Earth<strong>_

5 years. For 5 long years they waited. They rebuilt. Rearmed. And now, they were ready. Ready to spread the light of the Great Journey to all.

Hurok Wattinree stood on the bridge of his flagship, the CAS-Walk of Divinity, overlooking the holo-pad projections of the rebuilt Fleet of Divine Fury. All 141 ships of the once 400 strong fleet. The Fleetmaster, after observing and ensuring everything was in working order, spoke up, _"All ships, prepare for synchronized jump to the new star system. Mark the location of this star system for future reference." _

He turned to Auburn Harmony, _"Harmony, go over the data once more." _The AI had told him earlier today that it had picked up signals coming from a nearby star system about 6 light years from here. It appears that whoever was talking was very chatty. And now, Hurok was going to find out who it was that was being so chatty.

_"Approximately 4 hours ago, I detected communication signals in the neighboring star system. They do not match any known allied or hostile configurations. Recommended course of action is to investigate mystery signal and report back findings." _the AI replied to its commander.

Hurok turned back to his seat at the bridge, _"And investigate we shall." _His plan was to lead a small battle group of 15 ships and see who the owner of the mystery signal was. 1 Assault Carrier, 2 Heavy Cruisers, 4 Heavy Destroyers and 8 Battlecruisers. This should be more than enough to deal with anyone who tried to challange their authority and power.

15 Slipspace portals opened, and with a prayer to their gods, Fleetmaster Hurok and the Covenant Battle Group entered Slipspace to spread the light of the Covenant and the Great Journey.

* * *

><p><em><strong>05.23.2105<br>**_**_Kandul System, Perseus Veil, Bordering the Terminus Systems  
>51,000 Light Years From Earth<em>**

In a Binary Star System, a battle was raging over one of the five planets in the system. A group of some 45 Hegemony ships were attacking a force of 10 Quarian ships, 6 of which were already destroyed and the other three were being boarded. The last ship, the Hirule, a 600 meter Cruiser with engines destroyed and partial on fire, was mere minutes from being boarded by 4 different ships. Inside, the crew were setting up makeshift blockades in an attempt to get ready to fight off the invaders.

_"Damn them all! I'll make damn sure those Batarian bastards pay for every inch." _Spoke the Captain of the doomed vessel, grabbing and prepping a shotgun as the rest of the bridges crew set up barricades. The Alarei was a science vessel, not a warship. The only reason they were in this star system to begin with was to set up a listening post to spy on the Geth. Then, suddenly the Batarian Fleet showed up and started decimating the smaller Quarian Fleet. The Captain already knew what would happen if they were captured, and she would rather die first than be a slave.

Captain Kelan'Hamr vas Hirule knew first hand the Batarians love of slave labor. Her sister was kidnapped on her pilgrimage when she was barely 16, and Kelan was just 22. The now 30 year old Quarian was nervous and raked with fear, but she wasn't going down without a fight. She only hoped that 'Keelah' was watching out for them, and would give them a miracle of some sorts.

The ship shuddered as several boarding craft attached themselves to the hull. Seconds later, gunfire could be heard all across the ship. The battle had begun.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Batarian Fleet Flagship<br>**__**Dreadnought 'Hegemony's Pride'**_

Admiral Kellrok was having a very good day. The fleet had been tracking the small Quarian Fleet for a couple of weeks, and now had them isolated in this star system. They had to destroy a few ships, but they were still going to get a good number of slaves from this. And the Council wouldn't know anything about it. Not that they would really care, considering it's the Suit Rats. And he had heard some things about Quarian Female physiology that he was dying to find out about. Oh yes, he was having a very good day.

_"Admiral, we've boarded the last ship. Some resistance, but nothing we can't handle, over." _A voice on the comms spoke up. _'Good,' _He thought, _'then we can return home with our bounty.'_

_"Sir, I'm picking up a multiple energy signatures nearby. Something's entering the system." _one of the officers spoke up. Good, more slaves. _"Wait, this can't be right. The energy signatures just keep getting bigger and bigger. Scans are already showing something over 5 km in length."  
><em>

The Admiral turned to the Officer, _"Impossible. No ship is that large, not even the Asari have anything that large. Are you drunk?" _His four eyes narrowed. The officer shook his head furiously, insisting otherwise and not wanting to face the Admiral's wrath. _"Bring our ships about. The other ships can take care of the Suit Rats themse... What the hell is that?" _He spoke, looking out the bridges viewport. He saw several small white dots in the black of space. They would of looked like distant stars, but he knew they weren't. In truth, they were only a few hundred meters away. They were beautiful in their own way, but that didn't explain his curiosity or what the hell they were. A curiosity that turned to shock when the dots expanded into massive white voids, and that turned to horror when several massive ships started to come out of them.

He screamed out for evasive maneuvers, but would never finish the sentence as the 1 km Batarian ship was crushed by the giant 6 km Covenant Assault Carrier.

* * *

><p><em><strong>CAS 'Walk of Divinity'<br>Bridge**_

The whole ship shuddered slightly, which was barely felt by the crew on the bridge. The Sangheili Helmsman looked around for a second, then spoke up, _"I think we hit something." _Fleetmaster Hurok was thinking the same thing, but the reports stated that the collision hadn't even broken their shields, which were holding at 83%. He could see on the holo-pads that there were at least 50 ships, or the remains of some anyway, of various size and shape. There were two keys design differences which helped them be distinguished, along with different coloring.

One group of ships, the larger of the two fleets, had a dark red coloring for their ship hulls with a streak of gold on the tops of the vessels, and were sleek and angular in design. The other ships, of the smaller fleet, were light gray in color, with most having bulbous fronts followed by a narrow body. It appeared that they were fighting each other, question was, should he consider them a threat.

He leaned back in his Gravity Throne as he pondered this and the navigator's statement, _"So we did. Harmony, what are we looking at?" _he spoke to the AI. Auburn Harmony scanned the nearby ships and spoke, _"Scans commenced, please wait. ETA to scan completion of foreign ships, 5 minutes. ETA to language translation completion, 43.75 minutes due to multiple languages present." _

_"How many languages, Harmony?"  
><em>

_"10, Fleetmaster." _10? There was no way that many races were present before him. At any rate, he needed information on the aliens before him and now.

_"Prioritize them and focus on the ones present at the moment. Give me information on these beings. I want to know everything about them."  
><em>

_"Yes, Fleetmaster. ETA to completion of two priority languages, 8 minutes. Warning, energy spikes detected. Larger alien fleet maybe readying to fire."_

As if on Que, one of the bridge crewmen turned around and spoke, _"They're firing. Incoming projectiles." _The sides of several alien ships came alive with broadside guns firing into the Covenant warships, Mass Driver rounds slamming into the shields of the larger warships. Multiple rounds struck the Walk of Divinity's shields, but none of the rounds broke through to the Carrier's hull. This was the same case for the other Covenant vessels. Unimpressed and angered by this unprovoked attack, Fleetmaster Hurok replied in kind, _"All ships! Target the red ships and cleanse this system of their filth. Do not fire upon the gray vessels, yet. I have yet to decide their fate."_

He turned to the Weapons Station, _"Commence firing with Pulse Lasers and Plasma Turrets. Target their larger ships with the Plasma Torpedoes. Save the Energy Projector for later. Harmony, jam their communications. Don't even allow them to talk to each other." _The crew of the Weapons Station saluted and proceeded with their task at hand, while Auburn Harmony proceeded with the disruption of enemy communications, which took him less than 15 seconds to achieve. He looked back to the holo-pad in front of him, typed in a few commands and spoke, _"Launch our Seraph Fighters and achieve air supremacy. Let us burn these fiends into oblivion!"  
><em>

* * *

><p>The Batarians fired away with everything they had, multiple rounds slamming into the shields of the Covenant Warships. Batarian Frigates fired their broadside Mass Drivers and GUARDIAN Lasers. Cruisers fired their own broadside Mass Drivers and missiles. The surviving two Dreadnoughts fell back to fire their main weapons, the Mass Accelerator Cannon. Due to the fact the weapon ran down the length of the Dreadnought's 'spine', meaning unless the target was directly in front of the gun, the Mass Accelerator Cannon is useless at close range. Batarian Fighters flew through space, launching missiles and firing their cannons at the massive Warships.<p>

Despite the combined fire of nearly 50 ships and numerous Fighters, none of the Batarian Weapons were penetrating the Covenant Shields. Most of the Covenant ships' shields held at 40%. Now it was the Covenant's turn to reply in kind.

Multiple Plasma Turrets and Pulse Lasers came to life from the Covenant Warships, screaming towards the Batarian Ships. The Kinetic Barriers of the Batarians held only for a few seconds before giving way to the sheer volume of Plasma bolts. Plasma boiled the hulls of the ships, causing massive atmospheric venting and several ships to ignite and explode, while the Pulse Lasers cut through the Batarians like a knife through paper. A dozen ships went alight or exploded within ten seconds of the barrages opening. One ship laid dead in the water, its atmosphere been vented due to the bridge being directly hit with plasma fire.

Seraph Fighters exited the hangars of the Assault Carrier and engaged the Batarian Fighters in space. While fighting bravely against the giant (In comparison to their own fighters), the Seraphs were simply far superior and too numerous for the Batarian pilots to handle. The teardrop-shaped Fighters devastated the Batarians at every turn, their Heavy Plasma Cannons tearing apart the smaller fighters.

And the Covenant were far from done. With the Battlecruisers leading the charge, the Covenant fired away, with Plasma Turrets and Pulse Lasers cutting and boiling through the armor of the Batarian ships. Multiple Cruisers and Frigate went down in fiery infernos as the Covenant continued their onslaught. Within 1 minutes of the Covenant's counterattack, 23 of the Batarian Fleet's 45 were destroyed, most being Frigates, but also a third of the Cruisers were gone too. Within a few minutes, the Covenant Fighters had destroyed or routed the Batarian Fighters and had achieved Air Superiority.

And now, the Covenant were going to unleash another weapon. One made infamous for its use in the Human-Covenant War.

* * *

><p><em>"Fleetmaster, Plasma Torpedoes are ready to fire." <em>Spoke on of the crewmen of the Weapons Station. Fleetmaster Hurok leaned back in his Gravity Throne, _"Target their largest warships." _On screen, the retreating figures of the two Dreadnoughts, along with the remaining 10 Cruisers, were highlighted yellow.

_"Targets locked." _The Fleetmaster looked at the remnants of the Batarian Fleet before him, before speaking, _"Fire."_

The Walk of Divinty roared to life as a dozen massive blue orbs fired out the sides of the Assault Carrier, streaking towards their targets. The Batarians, thinking these were massive missiles being aimed towards them and not realizing what they really were, prepared their GUARDIAN lasers to take down the 'missiles'. When the Plasma Torpedoes entered the range of the Batarian Frigates, they opened fire.

To come to the horrid realization that their GUARDIAN Lasers had no effect on the purely Plasma-based weapons.

The Plasma Torpedoes went streaking past the Frigates, towards the Cruisers and Dreadnoughts. The larger ships desperately tried to evade the incoming projectiles, but to their horror, the Torpedoes actually traced and followed the fleeing ships. Despite the desperate evasive maneuvers of the Batarians, the Torpedoes continued towards their targets and slammed into the ships.

11 of the 12 Torpedoes connected with their targets. The results were instantaneous.

One Cruiser was struck in the engine and was set alight, engulfing the ship in an inferno of fire before exploding. Two more Cruisers were literally burned in half by the ordinance. A Dreadnought was gutted by the Plasma as it entered through the rear of the ship and burned its way to the bow's side. All the other target ships met similar fates, save for one lucky Cruiser that had the corpse of a slain Quarian ship intercept the shot. This gave the Cruiser precious seconds to escape and make a beeline to the star systems' Mass Relay. The Frigate, however, had no chance of escape due to their close proximity and were left to their fate.

The Covenant decided there would be no mercy today.

* * *

><p>Fleetmaster Hurok Wattinree looked out at the destruction before him. The enemy had been utterly devestated, with most of their fleet in ruins. Their own ships had suffered no damage, though they did lose a couple dozen fighters. It appears that the enemy's AA gun system were somewhat decent in terms of fighting off aircraft. But nonetheless, the enemy was destroyed. His Battlecruisers and Heavy Destroyers were mopping up the last of their forces.<p>

_"Fleetmaster, I have completed the scan of their databanks and translation the two languages." _Auburn Harmony spoke. The Fleetmaster turned from the battlescreen projections and turned his attention to the glowing orb hologram. _"Proceed. Who are they?"_

_"The larger fleet who engaged us are call Batarians, a bipedal race of four-eyed creature. Their civilization is called the Batarian Hegemony, a dictatorship-like government who maintain and control everything in their territory from news to even industry. They apparently don't trust private industries to manufacture weapons. They also use slaves to.."_

_"Slaves?!" _This genuinely shocked the Fleetmaster. While the Unggoy could be pointed out as not being much better, Hurok and many Sangheili actually had a modest level of respect for the Unggoy. He had been there during the Unggoy Rebellion and had seen what they could do and what they were capable of when they were motivated. In his eyes, the Unggoy were just as much soldiers as any other member of the Covenant, they simply just needed a little motivation now and again.

_"Yes, slave labor. It apparently is a part of their culture to use slave labor. They're not the most popular bunch in the galaxy for this and their aggressive nature towards other races, due to them apparently believing they're a master race of some sort. In fact, I'm_ 95.68%_ certain this is the reason they're here to begin with attacking the Quarians."_

_"Quarians?" _

_"Oh yes, apologies, Fleetmaster. The smaller fleet belongs to a race called the Quarians, a nomadic, bipedal race who have the largest collective fleet in the galaxy, numbering over 50,000 ships." _50,000? If Hurok had to confess, that was impressive. _"The reason for this nomadic life is due to the Quarians losing their homeworld, Rannoch, to a synthetic race of their own creation called the Geth. According to the databanks, the Geth rebelled against their creators and drove them off their homeworld some 300 years ago. Since then, they have travelled from system to system, mining and harvesting local resources in order to keep their fleet, and their species, alive. Despite galactic disdain for their involvement of the Geth and being viewed as no more than thieves and beggars, they are regarded as some of the best engineers in the Galaxy."_

This gave him pause. Best Engineers. The Covenant could use this to their advantage. The Huragok were without an equal, but they had barely 2,500 of the Forerunner's Legacies. These Quarians would be a massive boost to not only their military, but industrial capacity as well. He decided that an audience with the Quarians would be the best course of action. But first, he had to save them.

He turned back to the AI, _"I want our Heavy Cruisers to move in and secrue those Quarian ships. Deploy boarding parties to eliminate any Batarians on board those vessels." _On the holo-pad projections, the Heavy Cruisers were moving in towards the 4 burning and heavily damaged Quarian ships, each with a Batarian Frigate next to them. The Fleetmaster turned from the AI to the holo-pad projections.

_"Time to see if their warriors fair better then their ships."  
><em>

* * *

><p>The Heavy Cruisers, with the Heavy Destroyers flanking them and having either bypassed or destroyed the remaining Batarian ships in their way. As they proceeded closer to the damaged Quarian ships, their sides came alive as dozens of Boarding Crafts exited and came screaming towards their targets. With no opposition from enemy aircraft and no AA defenses, the Boarding Craft all connected to the target ships and begun to offload their cargo.<p>

Any Batarians left on these ships were now doomed.

* * *

><p>Captain Kelan'Hamr vas Hirule fired her shotgun at a Batarian soldier, killing the hapless trooper. The damn slavers had cut off all power from the engines save for life support. She had no idea what was going on outside the ship or in other sections of the ship even. As far as they knew, they were the last pocket of resistance on the ship and were only delaying the inevitable. And there were only about a dozen Quarians left on the bridge.<p>

No, she couldn't start thinking like that. They had to keep fighting. This was one of the few cases where death was actually a better alternative. She couldn't allow herself to be captured by these bastards. Keelah only knows what the Batarians would have in store for her, and she wasn't planning on finding out.

More Batarians stormed through the bridge doors, firing their assault rifles at the Quarians. One Quarian Marine chucked a grenade at the fresh wave of Batarians. The grenade detonated and killed three of the four-eyed slavers as the Batarian Troopers continued their assault on the bridge. It seemed like they had three more for every one of them that was killed. The same Marine that had thrown the grenade was killed by a shot to the head. Two more were killed soon after as the Batarians pushed up.

There was just no end to them.

* * *

><p>Kelan popped up to fire her shotgun again, before the weapon sparked with electricty, her HUD reading it was overheated. Dammit, one of the Batarians had fired an overload shot and hit her weapon. She swapped to her heavy pistol, but found it was overloaded too. '<em>Bosh'tet!' <em>she thought, knowing she was now an easy target to pick off if she wasn't careful.

An explosion rocked the bridge as another grenade went off, killing two Quarians and wounding another. But, to the Quarians' horror, they discovered that an EMP grenade had been detonated as well, overheating all of their weapons. Realizing their plan had worked, the slavers surged forward, subduing and detaining all the surviving Quarians.

Kelan fought her captors, but several hits with fist and rifle butts later her strength had left her. Two Batarian slavers held her as another put restraints on her, limiting her movement. The sound of chuckling filled her ears, as she looked up to see a Batarian Captain looking down on her. he kneeled down and spoke, _"Gave us alot of trouble, but you only delayed the inevitable." _He paused, his eyes looking up and down her figure, _"As much as I would like to keep you for myself, I think it'll be better if I sold you off. Should get a pretty good price for you."_

_"Go to Hell, you Bosh'tet!" _

_"Haha. Still have some fight in you? Don't worry. We'll take care of that." _He spoke as he grabbed her helmet, looking her in the eyes.

That was when the ship shuddered fiercely as multiple object collided with the ship. _"What the hell was that?"  
><em>

* * *

><p><strong><em>Hangar Of The Hirule<br>2 Minutes Prior_**

The hangar of the Quarian Cruiser was a three story tall empty space about 60 meters by 80 meters, with a second story catwalk and housed multiple tools and equipment that the Quarians used ground-side. There was even a excavation mech, but was unusable due to the power core being broken two days prior. A couple light military transports were being housed as well for the Marines stationed on board. But for the large part, multiple crates populated the hangar, along with several sleeping quarters that the Marines used.

But now, the hangar was a warzone, littered with dead and dying, burnt out equipment and makeshift covers. The hangar had been under siege since the ship was boarded, due to being in front of Engineering. Engineering had been the first place hit by the slavers, who quickly cut all power to the ship save for life support. This act alone had isolated the 400 crew members and 600 Quarian Marines defending the ship. And now some 50 Marines were fighting off the Batarian troopers. The once 150 strong force had been decimated from the none stop onslaught of slavers, along with a failed counterattack to retake Engineering.

Lance Corporal Yulren'Lovik nar Neema clutched his assault rifle and balled up behind a cluster of crates as bullets flew overhead. Next to him were a couple surviving members of his squad. Their squad had been part of the failed attempt to retake Engineering. Out of the 15 soldiers in their squad, only three had survived. And now, the Batarians were pushing in for the final kill.

_"Keep up the fire! We have to hold them off!" _A Quarian First Sergeant shouted, the highest ranking soldier left in command. His own squad leader, a Sergeant, was one of the first ones killed trying to retake Engineering. Now he was in charge of a squad of three. _"Keelah, I don't wanna die. I don't wanna die. Just let me live through this, please." _Yulren whimpered. He didn't want to die. Not yet. He hadn't even gone on his Pilgrimage yet. Instead, when he turned 16, he joined the Marines to serve his people and protect them.

This was the first time the 19 year old had seen combat. And he was scared shitless.

* * *

><p>He popped out of cover and fired off a burst from his rifle, before jumping back into cover. He doubt he hit anything, but still better than nothing. He saw a couple Marines go down as they were hit. The First Sergeant popped out and pushed forward with five other soldiers, all of them firing away at the Batarian Troopers. A few of the slavers went down from the hail of bullets, but quickly collected themselves and returned fire at the advancing group. This act encouraged some of the Quarians to step up the amount of firepower they were putting down range, but they were still heavily outnumbered by the slavers.<p>

He peeked out of cover, looking for targets, when he saw movement. Too late, he realized a trio of slavers had primed some grenades and chucked them directly at the First Sergeant and his squad. Yulren screamed out at the First Sergeant to look out, but it was too late. The grenades landed at the feet of the Marines and exploded, engulfing them in a trio ball of fire and shrapnel. Seeing this had visibly shaken the young soldier. 'That's it. We're dead. Done for.' he thought grimly.

The Batarians pushed up, firing away with assault rifles and machine guns as they chucked grenades to keep the Marines pinned down. Yulren's fellow squad mates popped out of cover and killed a few slavers advancing on their position. But one of them was hit in the chest, doubling over as he fell to the ground dead. His teammate fired on the slaver that killed him, nicking him a couple times before the Batarian fell back into cover. The Marines moved back into cover, but was hit in the head and dropped like a ton of bricks, dead.

_"Ancestors, help us." _Yulren whispered as he clutched his rifle. The gunfire was starting to die down on his end, meaning the Batarians were mopping up and moving in for the kill. He could hear them, they were close. And closing in on his position. Yulren knew that it was over, he had nowhere to run. He just prayed that the slavers chose to kill him instead of making him a slave.

As a Batarian soldier rounded the corner, the wall behind Yulren seemed to explode, knocking everyone to the ground. The room shook violently as if an meteor shower had struck the ship.

* * *

><p>As he picked himself up from the ground, Yulren looked behind him to what the hell just happened. What he saw, well, he didn't know what to think. Coming through the wall were what appeared to be two holes, but he knew better to know what an insertion door of a boarding craft was when he saw one. Great, the Batarians had flanked them. But then he took another look at it. The insertion door was purple in color and had a white-bluish 'screen' covering the entrance. These weren't akin to Batarian designs.<p>

What the hell was this? That mild blue screen wasn't a color kinetic barriers made. Usually they were orange or a whitish blue color, depending on the design.

He saw a silhouette moving towards the door, followed by several more. The being jumped out from the boarding craft, landing with a crouch not 10 feet from Yulren's position. The Batarians, and a few Quarians, aimed their weapons at the newcomers, but most were simply caught off guard by the sudden entrance. At first, Yulren thought the being was a Turian, but the being was massive, larger than a Krogan. When the creature stood up, however, and allowed him to see its full body and face, he quickly realized something.

This thing wasn't Turian. Hell, it looked like it could rip a Turian in half with ease.

The being must of been nearly 8 feet tall. Grey skin, with hoofed feet and what looked like two fingers and two thumbs; one on top and one on the bottom of the hand. But what freaked him out was its face. Those reptilian eyes. And there was no bottom jaw. None. And it looked liked it's mouth was made up of four mandibles, each filled with razor sharp teeth. It's body was covered in solid white armor, and in its hands was a strange weapon Yulren had never seen before. The Batarians were conversing with themselves, unsure of what to do as more and more troops exited the craft, with three different species exiting the craft all together. The Sangheili Ultra, however, decided to make their choice for them.

With a savage roar, joined in by several other Sangheili, the Ultra aimed his Type-51 Carbine and open fire on the slavers. The Batarian-Covenant War had begun.

* * *

><p><em><strong>05.23.2105<br>****Epsilon Indi A system  
><strong>_**_SSV-Spirit of Fire  
>20 kms From Wreckage<em>**

Admiral Cutter couldn't believe what he was seeing. He looked at the holo-pad projection of what the object was and knew immediately what it was. But he just simply couldn't believe it was this ship. Granted, the ship was a mangled wreck of its former glorious self, but he recognized it nonetheless. He kept reading the name on the side of the hull.

**UNSC EVEREST-C-311**

The UNSC Everest. Valiant-Class Super-Heavy Cruiser. 1.5 km of death and fury. 2.5 m of Titanium-A armor. Equipped with three 600-ton MAC guns that could tear through Covenant ships (If the shields were broken), 80 Archer Missile Pods, and 150 50 mm Point Defense Guns.

And the Flagship of Admiral Preston J. Cole.

He didn't want to believe it, but here it was, right in front of him. But Cutter, however, didn't like the condition the ship was in. The Everest's hull was burnt and mangled in multiple areas, indicating that this ship had seen some serious combat before it ended up here. The rear was the worst hit of the ship, but the bow of the ship was only moderately damaged. Only one of the MAC Guns seemed damaged. There were several scorch marks on the hull, but the bow was mostly intact. This spoke good news to Cutter. He knew that the Valiant-Class spaced out their cryo-pods, so if something happened during hibernation, the entire crew wouldn't be lost.

Which meant there was at least a fair chance of survivors on board.

"Ensign Holmes."

"Yes, Captain?" Came the response. Cutter turned around and looked at her.

"Contact Red Team, tell them to suit up, and prepare a boarding party."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Crew Quarters<strong>_

In the Crew Quarters of the ship, three soldiers were being assisted in suiting up their massive armor and preparing to depart on a mission. The MJOLNIR Mk IV was fantastic at what it did, but took upwards of 30 minutes and a dozen technicians each just to put on the Spartans. They had been personally requested by Admiral Cutter himself, so they automatically knew this was important if they were being call up. Spartans were only called up on the most dangerous or important of assignments, which was the only reason they could of been called up and told to suit up. Jerome-092, Douglas-042, and Alice-130 finished their suit up and proceeded towards the hangar bays.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Hangar Bay 2A<strong>_

Once there, a trio of Pelican Dropships were waiting to take off, one for the Spartans, and the other two were for the 60 specially outfitted ODST that were going with them. Scans had showed that 62% of the Everest's hull was breached and compromised. So to protect the soldiers going on board, all of the ODST were suited up with Atmospheric Gear to protect them from space. The Spartans, there suits already designed to be airtight, were rigged with two extra oxygen tanks for prolonged operations.

"Is everyone ready to go?" One of the technicians spoke to the Spartans. Jerome looked down at the man, "Yes, we're ready."

The technician nodded and waved over towards the Pelican, "Alright, then. Everyone else is good to go, hop on board."

The Spartans proceeded towards the Dropship in the center of the formation. Each Pelican were equipped with extended carriages to carry more troops. With these attachments, they were able to carry upwards of 50 personnel into combat situations, while still providing decent protection.

_'Spartans, do you read?'_ A voice came up on the radio.

"Affirmative. This is Spartan-092, go ahead." Jerome responded.

_'Sierra-092, this is 1Lt. Wellington, CO of Talon Company, 35th ODST Battalion. We'll be working together in this operation.'_

"Affirmative, Lt."

"Head's up," The Pelican's Pilot spoke up, "We're taking off." The Pelicans shuttered as they lifted off the ground and proceeded towards the hangar's exit tubes for the ship's aircraft. Each of the Pelicans entered one of the tubes and flew out of the ship to open space. The trio of troop carriers sped towards the wreck of the Everest. "Spirit of Fire, this Yuma-1, ETA to destination 3 minutes, over."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Bridge<strong>_

"Roger that, Yuma-1. You are clear to proceed on course, over." Cutter responded, watching the holo-pad projection of the Pelicans proceeding towards the wreckage of the former flagship of the UNSC. He turned to the Communications and Sensors Systems, "Commence a scan of the hull for IFF tags, see if we can pinpoint where the crew's at. Ensign Holmes, relay this command to the fleet."

"Yes, Sir."

Cutter turned around and walked towards one of the Lieutenants on deck and spoke up, "Any word from the Minsk?"

"Yes, Sir. Captain Hackett sent a data packet 4 minutes ago with information on the planet." The Lieutenant spoke, handing the Admiral a data-pad. Cutter took the pad and looked down at the information being displayed.

* * *

><p><em>Planet Exploration Report\  
><em>_/System: Epsilon Indi A\  
><em>_/Planet Codename: Harvest\_

_/Atmosphere:  
>76.52% Nitrogen<br>21.33% Oxygen  
>2.15% Various Other GasesWater Vapor\_

_/Surface Conditions:  
>41% Salt Water<br>16% Fresh Water  
>43% Land (Scout Probes Finished Testing That Indicate The Soil Is Very Fertile For Crops And Farming.)<em>

_Total Mass: Roughly 121% The Size Of Earth\_

_/1.3 G\_

_/Temperatures: Ranging from -2*C to 28*C\_

_/Orbit Cycle: _

_281 Days For Full Rotation Around Star._

_27 Hours In A Day.\_

_/Approved For Future Colonization.\_

* * *

><p>Admiral Cutter couldn't help but smile at the choice of name for the Planet. Hackett was one of the few people that knew the truth about him and the history of the UNSC. Despite that, the name did seemed to fit the planet, if the scans were accurate about the soil.<p>

"Sir, Everest Infiltration Teams have arrived at insertion points."

He turned from the data-pad, looking back to the holo-pad. "Good, tell them they have a green light to proceed."

* * *

><p><strong><em>Pelican Dropship<em>**

_'Entry Teams, you have a green light.' _The Pilot spoke over the radio. Jerome pulled his MA5B off his back, the magnetic clamps unlocking the rifle from its original place. Alice and Douglas took flanking positions on Jerome. They were entering through a massive gap in the hull towards the stern that was large enough for a Pelican to fit through.

The dropship shuttered as it touched down. _'Okay, you are clear to exit. Opening doors now.' _The ramp dropped down, exposing the Spartans to the vacuum of space. They were met with silence and darkness. They quickly turned on their flashlights to illuminate their surroundings.

"Move out." Jerome spoke, receiving two winks of light as acknowledgement of the order.

The super soldiers move out from the troop carrier, looking about to see where they were exactly. They quickly realized they were in on of the vehicle bays, seeing a couple warthogs still strapped down to their respective depots. Other than that, there wasn't much else in the bay. They continued towards a sealed door that led deeper into the ship and to their destination.

_'Red team, this is Talon-Actual, Copy?'_

"Roger, Talon-Actual. We read you. Status, over?"

_'We've touched down and are proceeding to Engineering, gonna see if we can get the lights back on at least. ETA about 5-10 minutes. What's your status, over?'_

"We've touched down as well and are proceeding to the cryogenic bays to locate possible survivors. ETA about 5 minutes, over."

_'Roger that. I'll send a couple squads to rendezvous with you and help out, how copy.'_

"Lt, do you think you can bring Life Support back online, over?"

_'Well, it depends on the condition of the engines, but we'll see what we can do, over.'_

"Roger, that. Red team, out."

And with that, Jerome focused back on the task at hand. Douglas had pried the vehicle bay door open and the Spartan team proceeded towards Cryo. They proceeded down hallways and turned corners, all the while weapons trained towards the front and scanning for any hostiles. All three of the Spartans remembered fighting the Flood, and weren't looking to stumble into any new surprises.

"Sir, according to schematics, Cryogenics deck is directly above us." Alice spoke up after scanning a hallway they were walking down. "Found some stairs." Douglas spoke from the other side of the same hallway. Jerome and Alice moved towards the stairs and Douglas. They all proceeded up the stairs for two flights before arriving at Cryogenics deck. _'Red team, come in, over.'_

"This is Red team, go ahead, over."

_'This is Staff Sergeant Hudson, 7th Squad of Talon Company. We're at Cryogenics and we have located some survivors in cryo-stasis, over.'_

"Roger that, Sergeant. Can you confirm Admiral Cole's location and status, over?"

_'Standby.' _There was silence over the radio. And then, _'Yes. We have confirmed Admiral Cole's location. Until the others get the power back on, we can't confirm his vitals, over.'_

"Roger that. We're on our way. Red team, out." Jerome finished as they continued towards their objective.

A couple minutes later, they arrived at their destination. There were Cryo-pods lined up on both sides of the hallway. They could see ODST gathered around, one of the troopers waving them over. They walked over to the troopers. One of the ODST, larger and taller than his companions, stepped up and spoke, "Red team? SSgt. Hudson. We found the Admiral over there one of the Cryo-pods." He gestured behind him, pointing his thumbs back a couple pods down.

"Good. Now we're just waiting on the Lieutenant to bring the engines back online." Jerome spoke.

At that moment, as if on que, the light flickered on and the speakers blared out various stats about the ship's condition. _'We got the power back on, over.' _The Lieutenant spoke over the radio. After a pause, he spoke once more, _'We don't have life support available, so the survivors are gonna have to be moved in their pods. I'll send a team up to the bridge to secure data and purge the servers, over.' _

"Roger, Talon-Actual. We'll get right on it, out." Jerome turned to the Sergeant, "How many are still alive?"

"One sec." Hudson spoke as he typed into the data-screen. After a few seconds, he spoke up, "We've got 417 still alive, including Admiral Cole." The ODST went about to the pods, prepping them to be moved. "Alright, then. Let's bring our people home." He finished as the ODST and Spartans went about their new task.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Spirit of Fire-Bridge<strong>_

Admiral Cutter heard the news that Admiral Cole had been found and was still alive. He was glad. The Alliance could use a man of his caliber, giving the Alliance Navy a major boost in tactics and and skill, especially if its coming from someone with Cole's level of quality. Things were looking up for the Alliance.

"Captain, emergency message from HIGHCOM." Ensign Holmes spoke up. Cutter turned around, "What is it?"

"Yesterday, Terra Nova came under attack and occupied."

The room went dead silent. Admiral Cutter went dead silent, unmoving. Fear coursed through his body. Under attack?! By who? Could it be the... no. No, it couldn't be. A dozen questions a minute were running through his head as Cutter gathered himself and spoke up once more, "What's going on exactly?" Ensign Holmes did a quick read over of the message before speaking once more.

"Sir, a rebellion has occurred and has overrun the planet's garrison force. Four Military Ships have been seized by the Rebel forces and are using them as a main line defense for whatever we send to retake the colony."

Cutter breathed a small sigh of relief. It wasn't Covenant or a hostile first contact, but it was still a serious matter. Terra Nova was a vital Garden World, with some 1.2 Million inhabitants living on the Planet. If a Garrison Force of 25,000 had been overrun, along with local police forces, then this rebellion must have been large in scale and had been years in planning. He knew some of the Systems Alliance's (or rather, the UNSC's) policies were unpopular, but he hadn't expected a rebellion to occur. At least, not so soon.

Regardless, they have a duty to defend Earth and her Colonies, from both foreign and domestic enemies.

Cutter turned to Communications and spoke, "Ensign, tell the Spartans and ODST to get back here now, we're gonna need them. SSV-Boston is in charge of retrieving personnel from Everest. We're jumping in 10 minutes."

"Yes, Sir." She went to issue out the order, when the radio came alive, _'Admiral, this is SSV-Minsk, requesting permission to leave and proceed towards Sirius System, over.' _

"For what purpose, Captain?"

_'To act as an advance scout and give tactical information back to Alliance Command on enemy strength, over.'_

Hackett's ship could get their sooner than anything from Earth or Reach, it wasn't a bad idea. After pondering for a few seconds, the Admiral spoke up, "Permission granted, Captain."

_'Roger that, Spirit of Fire. SSV-Minsk, leaving system, out.'_

On the holo-pad, the Minsk was shown leaving the orbit of Harvest. A few seconds laters, she winked out of existence. Cutter turned to look at the Everest wreckage, and whispered under his breath, "I hope you've still got that brilliant mind of yours, Admiral." Before turning back to hear Ensign Holmes speak up, "Sir, Spartans and ODST are back on the Pelicans. They're on their way back to the ship."

"Good, the moment they're on board, we'll commence a jump to Terra Nova."

* * *

><p><em><strong>05.23.2105<br>**_**_Kandul System, Perseus Veil, Bordering the Terminus Systems  
>51,000 Light Years From Earth<br>Hangar Of Quarian Ship "Hirule"_**

_"What the hell are these things?! Why won't they die!?" _A Batarian trooper screamed as he fired away with his assault rifle at an Sangheili Major charging him, its shields absorbing the impact of the tiny rounds. The large reptilian roared as it charged the four-eyed slaver with his plasma sword. His plasma rifles had been disabled by some kind of eletrical attack from the creature in front of him, so he decided to kill the slaver the old fashion way. The way of the sword.

The four-eyed slaver screamed as the Sangheili plunged his sword into its chest, killing it swiftly. _"Push forward, my brothers! Leave none of these foul creatures alive!" _He shouted back to his fellow soldiers, flinging a plasma grenade at trio of slavers hiding behind a crate. The Batarians were fleeing at this point. None of the suit rats were worth this kind of devestation over. They were more than happy to pull back to Engineering and fortify their defenses, but not after losing over half of their troops in the hangar.

Ever since the Covenant had joined in, the battle had turned from one of a slaughterhouse for the Quarians, to one for the Batarians. The slavers had never encountered enemies so fierce and unrelenting; so superior and seemingly unstoppable. The small ones, the ones that look like volus with strange triangle backpacks, were pretty easy to kill, only their sheer numbers made them dangerous. The bird creatures were quick and had shields, but could be killed if they were flanked. The large ones, however, seemed unstoppable. They had complete shields that seemed impossible to break, unless you were using a heavy weapon or an overload app.

And the Quarians... they didn't know what to make of the newcomers.

For all their aggression and dominance, none of it was being directed towards them, just towards the Batarians. In fact, one of the larger Turian-like beings actually save Yulren from a slaver from killing him. All he knew was that for now, it seemed the strange aliens were on their side. For the moment, at least. _"Who is the commanding officer?" _someone suddenly spoke. Yulren turned around and was face to face, er, chest, to the Sangheili Ultra. It was looking down on him, waiting for a response.

Come to think of it, who was in charge of the Marines? The First Sergeant was dead, along with every other sergeant, which meant that the chain of command would pass onto... oh Bosh'tet.

He spoke hesitantly, _"I guess that's me... sir?" _The Sangheili looked at him for a moment. Then it spoke up once more, _"I am Kolre Uzinaree, Commander of this outfit of The Covenant Spec-Ops. My race is known as Sangheili." _Kolre placed his curled up right hand over his chest, his voice spoke with pride and honor. Yulren could already tell this... _Sangheili _was a career soldier, one who has seen many battles.

Realizing Kolre was waiting for a response, the young Quarian spoke up, _"I'm Lance Corporal Yulren'Lovik nar Neema. I suppose I'm the person left in charge of the Marines here." _

_"What Happened to your fleet?"_

Yulren looked off, gathering his thoughts, _"Our ships were sent to track a supposed Geth Cruiser that was by itself. The plan was to disable it and access their databanks, gain some massive intel on the Geth." _He paused for a second, before realizing something, _"Oh right, you probably don't know what I'm tal-"_

_"We are already aware of what the Geth and Batarians are, Quarian. We did the same thing to the Batarian Fleet, and hacked into their databanks."_

Yulren was caught off guard with this, they already knew? That made things... simpler, he guess. _"Continue your story."_

_"Right, well when we arrived in system, instead of a single Geth Cruiser, we were greeted with a damn fleet of nearly 50 Batarians. We tried to run but were cut off at from the relay. We had no way out, and we knew what the four-eyed Bosh'tets were here for, so we started fortifying and prepared for the worst. When they cut the power, there were about 150 Marines that were cut off here. And we were the only ones who could retake Engineering and restore power."_

Kolre looked around the room, observing how many Quarians were still alive. He counted 32. 120 had died trying to give their companions a fighting chance. He had to admire and respect that determination. He turned back to the young Corporal, _"Then let us restore power to this ship and drive these fiends off it."_

_"Are you nuts?! By now, they've fortified their position and set up machine gun nest all over the place. It would be a slaughter!"_

The Sangheili gave what Yulren could only describe as a devious grin, _"Fret not, we have an answer for that problem."_

As if on Que, two massive hulking creatures, even larger than the Sangheili, stepped up and approached the duo. Yulren was speechless. The two hulking creatures were 12 feet tall. They both had a massive shield on their left arm, and what looked like a giant green cannon on their right. Several spines were sticking out of their back. Their bodies had various patches of orange, which looked fleshy and living. Their heads were surprisingly tiny and fully encased in armor.

The Sangheili warrior spoke up, _"The Mgalekgolo will lead the charge. Their armor can withstand anything these heathens can throw at us. Forward! For the Covenant!" _

* * *

><p>Engineering was a large spacious room, with several platforms and computer screens controlling twin reactors that were behind a large glass screen that protected the room from being irradiated. The Batarians had fortified their position after the disaster at the hangar. Half a dozen Machine Guns were aimed at the entrance of Engineering, along with four dozen Batarian troopers. What they saw next, however, they were completely unprepared for.<p>

The Mgalekgolo roared, their spines flaring out, as they charge the hallway that lead to Engineering. The Batarians were dumbfounded at what they were seeing. Enormous creatures, larger than a Krogan, charging their positions with massive shields. The Batarians panic fired their Assault Rifles and Machine Guns at the hulking monsters, but the rounds just merely bounced off their massive shields.

The Mgalekgolo charged up their plasma cannons, green ball of plasma forming at the opening of the cannons. Finishing their charge, the cannons fired, twin ball of plasma screaming towards their targets. They connected and exploded in the midst of a group of slavers, sending weapons and body parts flying all around. The Covenant and Quarian Infantry came in behind them, firing away at the four-eyed terrestrials.

An Unggoy fired at one Batarian with a Type-33 Needler, hitting the hapless slaver with a dozen shards before they super-combined and exploded, turning the poor Batarian into pink mist. Yulren fired his Assault Rifle at another slaver, dropping him with several controlled burst. He doesn't know where this spark of bravery came from, but he knew that there was a fire lit in him that told him to fight, along with many of the other Quarians.

They were going to retake this ship, a statement that was only further support as Yulren saw Kolre strike down two Batarians with his Plasma Sword.

* * *

><p><em><strong>05.23.2105<br>****Epsilon Indi A system  
><strong>__**SSV-Boston**_

"...How many survived?" The 60 year old spoke softly. In truth he was actually 73, but many years in the UNSC Navy meant many years in cryo-sleep also, it did wonders for slowing the aging-process. While he was happy to be alive, when he saw the condition of his ship, his happiness was quickly replaced with dread. "417 were still alive. We're resuscitating them all as we speak, sir." The Lt. spoke, a young 30-something South African from the look of him.

He had hoped to leave the UNSC. Using the Io as a substitute to help fake his death had been an enormous gamble. He had hoped to take off with his crew, whom he had already spoken to about leaving the UNSC, and starting a new life somewhere away from the UNSC and the Covenant, found a colony or something. But now...

It seemed the impossible life of Admiral Preston J. Cole had gotten a little crazier. And he was still having trouble believing the story just told to him. The Human Systems Alliance? No Covenant? The year is 2105?

The aged Hero of Humanity looked at the Lt. with dark brown eyes, "What's going to happen to my ship?"

"In all truthfulness, Sir, I don't know. My guess is that they'll strip her down for parts, take out anything that can be useful. From our scans, two of the 600-ton MAC guns are still intact, so they may remove them and refit them onto the Spirit of Fire. Right now, that wreckage is the most advance piece of technology we have in possession."

Admiral Cole smiled a little bit at the mention of Captain Cutter's ship. No, _Rear Admiral_, now. Not only was he still alive, but he got a promotion as well. "Where is Admiral Cutter?"

"SSV-Spirit of Fire has been deployed to Terra Nova. An Rebellion has occurred there. They've overrun the local Military Garrison and the Rebels have seized 4 Military Ships."

"How were they able to do that?!" Cole was a little angry with that. One would have been understandable, but _four_?! There was no excuse for that. Unless, the Rebels were already on board and had been planning a seizure of the ships for some time.

"From what we can gather, the Rebels had been planning this for years now. They've had massive amounts of time to plan and gather resources for the rebellion."

That probably was the case. It had been the same thing with the Insurrections and the UNSC. Over a dozen Colonies rebelled within 4 days of each other when it had started. It was part of the reason ONI had been given so much power and financing when the Human-Covenant War started. But if they were lucky, this rebellion was just an isolated incident.

"What types of ships were at Terra Nova?"

"3 Athens-Class Frigates and 1 Gettysburg-Class Destroyer." Holographic displays of the ships appeared on the Holo-pad, allowing Cole to observe them in detail.

"Admiral." He heard, and turned to Captain Higorashi, a middle-aged man of Japanese origin, and C/O of the Boston, "We have the Sydney and Johannesburg attached to the Everest and they're going to take the ship back to Earth. I have instruction to bring you and your crew back to Earth as well. However," He paused, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly before he resumed talking, "I want nothing more than to go to Terra Nova and help resolve it before it turns into a bloodbath."

Cole took a step towards the man, his eyes narrowing slightly, "And why exactly would you be willing to defy orders of your Commanding Officer?" He inquired.

The Captain turned from him, the silence between the two lasting for several seconds, before Higorashi spoke up, "My daughter and her family are on Terra Nova."

Cole's facial expression softened. He understood what the man was going through at the moment. His family was in danger and he had the power to help them, but orders were conflicting with matter of the heart. Despite his sympathy for the man, knowing what it was like to worry over family, orders were still orders.

"I'm sure she'll be okay. If you were ordered to take me back to Earth, then do it. I'm sure afterwards they'll let you rejoin the Fleet to retake Terra Nova."

Higorashi turned to him, his face filled with surprise and confusion, "How do you know they'll have a Fleet mobilized?"

Now it was Admiral Cole's turn to turn away from the man, "Because it's what I would do if one of my worlds was being occupied."

Pondering it for a few moments, Higorashi, despite wanting to go to Terra Nova, knew that one against four weren't good odds. He turned to the Lt. and spoke up, "Order the fleet to commence jump. We're going to Earth. We'll regroup with the Fleet there and retake Terra Nova then."

The crewmen of the Boston went about to complete their tasks as the ship and the SSV-UNSC trio hybrid prepared to jump back to Earth.

* * *

><p><em><strong>05.23.2105<br>**__**Sol System  
><strong>__**Earth's Orbit**_

High above Earth's orbit, a Fleet was being mobilized. The Fleet was to be compromised of 10 Athens-Frigates, 2 Gettysburg-Destroyers, The 'Dreadnought' Spirit of Fire, and 4 Odysseus-Support Ships. The largest Naval Task Force ever assembled for an interstellar operation. So far, 7 Frigates, 1 Destroyer, and 2 Support Ships had arrived, with others to arrive within the next 24 hours. The Odysseus-Class had their Marine capacity loaded out to the maximum, and were fitted out with 50 Pelican Dropships, and numerous Military Vehicles ranging from Warthogs to Tanks.

This Fleet was being assembled for one purpose and one purpose only. The Liberation of Terra Nova.

* * *

><p><strong>So as you can see, there's definitely more action going on in this chapter (I hope I did a good job with the combat sequences.) And there will be more in the next chapter. The Covenant are making their grand entrance to the Galaxy, Admiral Cole has returned, and Humanity is about to have its first true test of its new Military Power. I made Admiral Cole a little younger because that's actually something Cryo-sleep does to a person while they're 'under', the slowing of the aging process that a person goes through over their life. It doesn't stop it completely, but it does slow it down considerably, which is why Admiral Cole is only 60 in body instead of 73. Slipspace jumps in the Haloverse take weeks, even months to complete. (For the UNSC, anyway, until after the Human-Covenant War.)<strong>

**The Council Races will be in the next chapter and start to be more prominent in future chapters, as to show how the Citadel Council is responding to the newcomers in the Galaxy and how Galactic History is being changed from the canon. **

**Another thing I would like to address is that I'm considering adding a minor romance in the story. Not entirely certain if I'm gonna do it, but it's definitely an idea being played with at the moment. Problem is, I suck at romance, so if there is anyone who is a romance writer or just knows how romance in story works I would love it if you contacted me regarding. That being said, if you have some ideas for the story, by all means contact me anyway. :) **

**Finally, thank you for all the support you've given me for this story. If I could, I would gladly hire each of you strippers and present them as a token of thanks. I can't do that of course, because A. That would be creepy if I knew where you all lived and B. I'm not made out of money (Lol).**

**In all seriousness, thank you. It means alot to the writers when they receive this level of support, especially for a first time story. (I'm excluding my other story because I kinda jump head-first into that one and I didn't really know what I was doing.) **

**Keep up the support and constructive criticism, and I'll see you next chapter.  
><strong>

* * *

><p><em>PLANET INFO<em>

_TERRA NOVA  
>SIRIUS SYSTEM<br>_

_First Colony: Sept-2104_

_Planet Mass: 133% of Earth's  
>Gravity: 1.4 Gs<br>_

_Atmosphere:  
>72.1% Nitrogen<br>24% Oxygen  
>3.9% Various Other GasesWater Vapor  
><em>

_Surface Conditions:  
>36% Land<br>41% Salt Water  
>33% Fresh Water<br>_

_Temperatures:  
>-10*C to 35*C<br>_

_Orbit Cycle:  
>307 Days F<em>_or Full Rotation Around Star__  
>30 Hour Days<em>

_Moons: 2  
>Kelvic (326,000 km from planet)<br>Durant (251,000 km from planet)_

_Capital/Largest City:  
><em>_Yukima City (P:120,000)  
><em>_Total Population: 1,231,700  
><em>_Military Garrison: 25,000_

_Planet History: Terra Nova, with its vast green forests, lush dark-blue grasslands, and surprisingly high levels of Fresh Water, has been one of the major focuses of Human Colonization, along with Reach and other large scale planets. With Yukima City being founded in Sept of 2104, it was one of the first planets to be colonized. Since then, numerous Corporations have invested billions into its development, with the results of that investment showing much promise. Terra Nova is also quickly becoming a popular tourist destination, for those that can afford to travel. There are several metal deposits that have yet to be exploited, but plans are in motion to set up facilities to mine these resources._

_While there have been people who have been wanting to leave the influence of Earth and the Systems Alliance, the inflation of 2104 gave them an excuse and inspiration for more people to join their cause, turning it into a full scale rebellion. Four former Alliance Ships are in the possession of the Rebels now, thanks to sympathizers and collaborators on the ships, who were able to overwhelm and eliminate anyone loyal to the Systems Alliance. __The Planet is currently a warzone as the Rebels and Alliance Marines slug it out for control of the Planet, although the Rebel have numerical superiority and are beginning to route the local Marine Garrison. Reinforcements will be needed if the Marines want to have any chance of beating back the rebellion._


	4. An Empire's Rise and Trials of War

**I don't own Halo or Mass Effect.**

**All Copyrights Reserved by 343 Industries and Bioware.**

**Bold-My Own Words**

**_Bold & Italic-Locations, Time & Calendar_**

Normal-Narrative

"Normal"-Person Speaking

'Normal'-Thoughts

_"Italic"-Foreign Languague_

_'Italic'-Radio Chatter_

_/Italic\-AI/Computer typing_

* * *

><p><strong><em>9th Age of Reclamation (05.23.2105)<br>_****_Kandul System, Perseus Veil, Bordering the Terminus Systems  
>51,000 Light Years From Earth<em>****_  
>Quarian Ship 'Hirule'<br>3 Decks Above Engineering_**

_"Why the Hell is no-one responding from downstairs? Someone tell me WHAT! THE FUCK! IS GOING ON! DOWN! THERE?!" _An enraged Batarian Major roared at a squad of troopers, numbering 10 including himself, in a hallway of the Quarian Cruiser.

About 10 minutes ago, communications downstairs went quiet, even though they could still hear gunfire going on. Then, about 2 minutes ago, the engines came back online, despite the fact they were heavily damaged, restoring power to the entire ship. And all the while he had been unable to establish any kind of communication with any other Batarian squads anywhere on the ship. Someone was jamming them, he knew that much. But he couldn't even contact the people in this room. How the hell does that happen?! The damn Salarians didn't even have anything this good.

Suddenly, he heard the sounds of the ship's elevator rising, more than likely coming to their floor. The Batarian Major puffed out a sigh of satisfaction. Now he could get some answers as to why the hell they haven't been responding and why the hell they turned the engines back on. Someone was going to get their ass kick when he found out why.

The elevator opened. And his train of thought was replaced with dumbfound shock.

There in the elevator was a single Batarian soldier being _lifted off the ground _by what looked like twin whitish blades piercing his chest. His head hung limp, obviously dead. There were several Quarian Marines in the elevator, but also what looked like several bends in the lighting all around them, moving and flenching. Then he realized it. Those were cloaks.

As if on Que, numerous monsters decloaked, including one white clad monster that was holding the impaled trooper. It flung the Batarian to the ground in a heap.

* * *

><p>Kolre Uzinaree snarled and activated a second Plasma Sword in his other hand, duel wielding twin blades of death. With a roar, he lunged forward and impaled the Batarian Major, who screamed out in agony as he was hoisted into the air. The Batarian soldiers, who hesitated due to them being completely caught off guard, began to open fire. The Sangheili and Marines returned fire in kind, spewing death at the outnumbered slavers.<p>

Kolre flung the now deceased Major at another Batarian, sending the corpse crashing into the hapless trooper. He charged towards two more slavers and struck them down with relative ease. 'Hardly a challenge.' he thought as he saw another slaver fall by the bolts of a Plasma Rifle, the weapon's signature whining sound echoing through the hallway. Several more seconds later, and the Batarians were all dead. The hallways grew silent save for the occassional sound of battle happening elsewhere on the ship.

* * *

><p>All around the ship, the Batarians came under attack by the Covenant SpecOps soldiers, who showed no mercy to the hapless slavers. Unggoy used shear numbers to suppress the four-eyed bipedals while Kig-Yar advance under the protection of their wrist shield gauntlets. Sangheili used their superior tactic to overwhelm the Batarians. And the Mgalekgolo... well, let's just say it didn't end well for any slaver unfortunate enough to cross paths with them.<p>

Yulren'Lovik nar Neema remembered watching one of the 'Hunters' slam its giant shield into one unfortunate Batarian and sent the poor bastard flying 20 feet into a wall. Another one simply slammed its shield down onto another slaver who was on the ground and _severed_ the Batarian in half. He shuttered at the memory of that particular moment. He was glad they were allies, well, for now, anyway.

He was still a little distrusting of the 'Covenant'. What was their motive? Why help them? When he asked Kolre, the Sangheili Ultra always replied with, _"We have a common goal and objective."_

What exactly did he mean by that? When questioned once more, the reply simply came, _"Fr__et not, all of your questions will be answered in time. For now, let us focus on the battle." _

Deciding that for now, he would withhold the questioning until they retook the ship. The Quarian Marines and Covenant SpecOps push up through the hallways of the deck, clearing out the various rooms and hallways of the deck from the invasive slavers.

After some time fighting amd killing off the Batarians on board, Kolre spoke, _"Yulren, where is the bridge?"_

_"It's towards the back of the ship, on this deck." _

_"Good, when we retake it, we can pilot the ship and dock it with one of our ships." _

_"Y-your ships? What do you mean?" _He knew those ships were large, but docking? Surely he's joking.

_"Yes. We'll dock it with the Walk of Divinity." _

_"Which one is that?" _

_"The 6 km Vessel."_

_"Keelah, how do you have ships so massive that don't run on Eezo?"_

_"Because we've never heard of this 'Element Zero', or Mass Relays. Our technology is derived off holy relics left behind by our Gods." _

Oh right. The _Forerunners._ Yulren was still curious to learn more about these supposed Gods. He questioned the legitimacy of them being gods, more than likely an ancient Civilization that left some tech behind that they reversed engineered, like the Citadel Races and the Protheans. Nonetheless, this technology that they had was so much better than anything they had. Hell, maybe even the Asari or Turians. He knew that if the Migrant Fleet secured an alliance with the Covenant, they could possibly save their species from extinction, maybe even reclaim their Homeworld from the Geth.

All in due time, of course. For now, retake the ship.

* * *

><p><em><strong>05.23.2105<br>**__**Sol System  
><strong>__**Earth's Orbit**_

The Fleet was mobilized, ready and waiting to retake Terra Nova from the Insurrectionists. 17 ships, and 50,000 soldiers, were waiting for the order to jump towards the Sirius System and put down the Rebellion. While Rear Admiral James Cutter and the Spirit of Fire's crew had experience in war and combat, this would be the System Alliance's first true test of their Military.

Cutter was already having a bad feeling about the mission.

In his personal opinion, they weren't ready. If the Alliance lost too many ships in the space battle, it might compel other colonies to rebel due to the Alliance's inability to properly respond. They had the numbers on the ground, but the Navy was still being developed. Heavy losses in space were something the Systems Alliance could not afford, not at the beginning of its colonization efforts. At least they had a seasoned Officer commanding the Fleet, so they had some hope of coming out of this with minimal casualties.

"Sir, all ships are reporting ready to jump." Ensign Rebecca Holmes spoke, her light brown eyes looking up to the Rear Admiral. He could see anticipation in her eyes, along with nervousness and fear.

He could understand her nervousness, the first time anyone sees combat is a life-changing experience. You never really are the same after it. He remembered the first time he was in combat, nothing more than a weapons officer on board the UNSC Frigate 'Jerusalem' when their battle-group of 5 Frigates came under attack by 7 Rebel ships of various design, in the Epsilon Indi A System.

The UNSC won the fight and destroyed the Rebels, but not after losing 2 ships and a third one being severely damaged. He never looked at the Military the same way after that fight.

And now, this young 26 year old woman, in the prime of her life, was about to have her life changed forever too. He could sympathize with her, but she still needed to be able to do her job. He would have a talk with her in a moment after they entered Slipspace.

He looked back to the holo-pad projection of the Fleet. "Good. All ships, prepare to jump."

"Sir, the Fleets' being hailed. It's Admiral Pavlenco." Cutter nodded and motioned for it to be patched through.

* * *

><p>The holo-pad projection changed to a profile of Admiral Nicu Pavlenco appearing. The Admiral seemed to collect his thoughts for a moment, before speaking up.<p>

_'Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Systems Alliance Military. You are about to embark on a Campaign to retake the Colony of Terra Nova from a radical group of rebels, who have risen up and overwhelmed the Garrison and local Law Enforcement. A few Alliance Marine units are still fighting on the planet's surface, and have sent back critical information on the strength of the Enemy we are to engaged in combat. As of now, the Rebel Forces number 64,000 strong, with several military vehicles and aircraft looted from Military Bases. Their naval force consist of 3 Athens-Class Frigates, the 'Malta', 'Amsterdam', and 'Shanghai', and 1 Gettysburg-Class Destroyer, the 'Stalingrad'.'_

_'You're task will not be an easy one. You will be facing a determined enemy, who is solid in their resolve to get what they desire. They will do everything in their power to defeat you and stop you at every turn. You shall prevail. Remember your training and you shall make it back. You will overcome them and you shall be victorious. Now, go forth and liberate Terra Nova. Admiral Pavlenco, out.'_

* * *

><p>And with that, the holo-pad returned to the display of the Fleet. Cutter was impressed. The Romanian Admiral had managed to inspire and motivate the soldiers of this invasion force. He looked over and saw a little less fear in Ensign Holmes' eyes and a little more courage than before.<p>

"Alright, then. Now that the motivational speech is done, I want to address everyone on board. Men and Women of the Spirit of Fire, our duty is to protect Earth and her Colonies from any and all enemies, both foreign and domestic. We shall preform this task to the best of our capability and beyond that. I won't lie to you. People are going to die today. This is the terrible price of war. Nonetheless, we shall preform our duties, engage the enemy and destroy them. That is all. Cutter, out."

He finished his little speech and breathed a small sigh, "Initiate jump."

17 white portals appeared before the fleet, and the ships went through the Slipspace Portals, to the fields of battle. Cutter's only wishes were that this would be over quick and that this wasn't the prelude to something bigger.

* * *

><p><strong><em>9th Age of Reclamation (05.23.2105)<br>_****_Kandul System, Perseus Veil, Bordering the Terminus Systems  
>51,000 Light Years From Earth<em>****_  
>Quarian Ship 'Hirule'<br>Outside The Bridge_**

Kolre, Yulren, and the rest of the Quarian/Covenant Coalition laid ready to assault the bridge of the 'Hirule'. Kolre had his Carbine out, ready to spew death out. He looked over to a couple Kig-Yar and spoke, _"Breach the door." _

The two Kig-Yar nodded and went to work hacking the door, but on of the Quarian Marines walked over to the controls and override the controls to unlock the door. The door opened and the warriors charged in. What they came across was not what they were expecting. _"What the hell?" _was all Yulren could get out.

The Batarians had left the Quarian bridge crew tied and bound up. They went about to check the status of the crew. Besides the dead bodies, no one was severely injured, save for a couple. It appears the Batarians fled the fight when they realized that they were gonna lose. Ironic, as their only means of escape was a Frigate that was attached to the ship. It had fled after the Covenant boarded the ship, but was destroyed by a Heavy Destroyer that intercepted it.

* * *

><p>Captain Kelan'Hamr vas Hirule awoke to the site of Quarian Marines tending to the bridge crew and anyone wounded, walking along side creatures she had never seen before. One species looked like volus without their suits and with large triangle packs. Another looked like featherless birds, most being equipped with some kind of wrist shield. The third and final species looked like a Turian with the muscle and size of a Krogan, and a head that was made up of four mandibles and no bottom jaw.<p>

_"Mam, are you alright." _She looked over to see Corporal Yulren kneeling next to her, looking to see if she was alright.

She waved him off and proceeded to get up, _"A few bruises, but nothing life-threatening. I suppose I have you and your... 'Friends' to thank for saving us." _She looked over the strange newcomers once more. _"Who... are they exactly?"_

Yulren chuckled, looking over the Sangheili Ultra, before turning back to the Captain, _"It's a long story... short version is, they're called the Covenant, and they're on our side."_

Kolre walked over to the duo at that moment, _"Indeed we are. You are the Shipmaster of this vessel?"_

_"Um... Y-yes I am."_ She assumed Shipmaster is what they called a Captain, _"Captain Kelan'Hamr vas Hirule, Captain of the Hirule, Quarian Cruiser of the Migrant Fleet." _It was blatantly obvious that she was intimidated by the sheer size of the Sangheili warrior. He was bigger than a Krogan, and could probably beat one in a fight.

_"Kolre Uzinaree. Commander of the Covenant SpecOps for the Fleet of Divine Fury."_

Covenant? Fleet of Divine Fury? Well now. Considering that if what Corporal Yulren told her was correct, that 15 of their ships destroyed a Batarian Fleet of nearly 50 without losing a single ship, then Divine Fury was a proper name for it.

_"Well Kolre, I don't know why your people chose to help us, but you have the gratitude and thanks of my people." _She brought her hands together about chest level, and bowed her head down towards them. This gesture confused the Sangheili Ultra, but he assumed the gesture was one of gratitude, so he thought nothing of it.

_'Commander, the ship is secured and the fiends are vanquished.' _The Sangheili's headset came alive with chatter.

_"Excellent. Commence patrols of the ship to ensure no more of the Batarian filth is on board."_

Kolre looked back to the Quarian Captain,_ "The Fleetmaster has requested an audience with you, Shipmaster."_

Kelan was surprised by the sudden request. But in truth, her people aren't in any position to refuse. Hell, they wouldn't be able to escape the system with those monster ships in position.

_"May I ask why the Fleetmaster requests such?"_

_"He wishes to speak with you in order to arrange a meeting with your people's leaders." _

They're wanting to meet the Admiralty? So soon? There had to be a catch to this. There was no one in the Galaxy that was this kind to the Quarians without wanting something in return. They must want something.

_"Why do you want to speak with the Admiralty?"_

_"These questions will be answered in due time. I assure you, though, that there is no ill attempt intended." _

The Sangheili spoke plainly, not going into too much detail but maintaining professionalism within the voice. No surprise considering the creature before her was definitely a career soldier if Kelan ever saw one.

She turned and looked to Yulren. The young Corporal looked at her, knowing already what she was about to ask. They were in no position to refuse. Plus, the 'Covenant' went through all the trouble of saving them. The least they could do was go and see this 'Fleetmaster'.

She turned back to the Sangheili Ultra, _"Very well. I shall go see your Fleetmaster, on the condition that I bring a security team with me as escort." _

_"They will not be needed, but they will be allowed. Come. We shall prepare a dropship to take us to the Walk of Divinity."_

Kelan motioned Yulren and a couple other Marines to follow her as the Covenant SpecOps and her proceeded out the Bridge and down the hallway towards the hangar down below. Suddenly, a question popped into the Quarian Captain's mind.

_"Kolre, which ship is the Walk of Divinity?"_

_"The largest of the ships. An Assault Carrier."_

He pointed out the window towards the massive Covenant Assault Carrier, to which she could only gape at the sheer size of the ship. Keelah, what has she gotten herself into?

* * *

><p><em><strong>05.24.2105 - 8:20 a.m SAT (Standard Alliance Time)<br>**__**Sol System  
><strong>__**London, UK, Earth  
><strong>__**Alliance Parliament**_

"What is the status of the Fleet?" President Carlos Santiago spoke, asking a assistant who was monitoring a data-pad. The Alliance Parliament was a relatively new building, fashioned in the form of the old United Nations Building in New York City. "Mr. President, the Fleet should be entering the Sirius System in about 1 hour."

The 56 year old Honduran nodded, and turned to Admiral Pavlenco, "Admiral, give me your opinion. Do you think our Military is ready for this?"

Admiral Pavlenco sighed, gathering his thoughts, before speaking up, "In all honesty, Mr. President, no. I don't think they are. Our Navy has not been in a serious engagement before now, nor has our Army been in a serious conflict for nearly 50 years, so our tactics are not refined. I doubt we're going to lose, but I don't doubt for a second that we will suffer considerable casualties before this is over. I just hope this isn't a prelude to something bigger."

The President pondered the Chief of Staff's words, knowing to take into consideration the man's judgement.

"At least he's being honest. What say you, Admiral?"

Admiral Preston J. Cole, for the most part, had been silent as he watch the events unfold in the Parliament building. Over the past day he had been brought up to speed with what was happening and was for the most part, up to date with the history of 'this' Humanity. He was still having trouble believing everything that had been told of him.

At least he knew what happen to Captain Cutter and the Spirit of Fire. No, wait. _Admiral _Cutter.

"In all honesty, I'm in complete agreement with Pavlenco. They're not ready, but sooner or later they're going to have to get some experience under their belt or when we come into contact with an alien race for the first time and it turns hostile, we'll get our asses handed to us."

This statement unnerved alot of people in the room. The President wasn't surprise by that remark about alien contact. He knew from Captain Cutter about the UNSC and their war with the Covenant. They even showed Parliament various videos from space battles to helmet cams on the ground of the UNSC's struggle with the Covenant. It was only part of, but for the most part the main reason they went on such a massive building spree on naval warships.

"Well, we can only hope that our first contact won't be hostile. Clarisse, how is the public handling the news?"

Clarisse Gallois, the Minister of Public Relations, was a 44 year old woman from Southern France. She had studied at Aix-Marseille University and became a intern in for the previous Presidents and their Cabinets, before being chosen by the current President.

"There is some panic, but more as to worry of the violence coming home to Earth over anything. We're doing everything in our power to assure them this is just an isolated incident, and will be resolve soon." The Frenchwoman spoke.

"Admiral Pavlenco, will General Bhandari be able to manage the task set out before him?"

"Yes. His record with the Indian Army is solid. Made a name as a capable and competent leader in the fight against Muslim Rebels in the Rajasthan Province during the Pakistan-India War of 2082. I think he'll prove himself once more here, even if it's on another planet."

"Okay, then." The President turned to Cole once more, "Admiral, we still have some time to talk before the Fleet arrives to its destination. Come with me, please."

Cole nodded silently, and followed the President down a couple hallways to another room, this one with a balcony that overlooked downtown London and the Thames river. They could see cars going across Tower Bridge and people walking the streets below. "Beautiful, isn't it?"

Cole glanced at the President once more, staying silent as he continued silently to watch the city's citizens went about their daily lives.

"I grew up in a small town in Honduras. You won't find it on any maps." He chuckled at this, "I worked hard to get where I am today. Spent nearly 30 years in low level politics, you know, like regional level, before I was able to advance up into the upper level Alliance Politics. The level of Politics that effect the entire planet. I wanted to change so much about the Alliance." He continued, deep in thought as he stared out towards the city before them.

"The way things were being run, the way politics were being handled, by god. You could smell the corruption in the air. Back in 2086, finally got onto a Cabinet as the Minister of Treasury, and made massive changes to the handling of currency and policies regarding trade. Must of made enough of an impression on the right people, cause I was nominated as a candidate for President in 2098 and won. Now, I'm running my second term and I'm facing the largest crisis of my time as President."

Cole looked over and studied the man beside him. The President was an interesting man, and a smart one, too. He already knew what the President was trying to do.

"With all due respect, Mr. President, but I'm done with the Military." Cole responded simply. The President turned to him, "I'm not asking you to come back into Military service for the Alliance. I'm asking that you help us out. Work as an Instructor for the Alliance Naval Academy, we could use a man of your caliber to teach future generations. Then, as you put it, we won't get our asses handed to us in first contact, if it turns hostile."

"_When_ it turns hostile. From the moment they meet us, aliens are going to look at us as weaker and inferior to their own kind, and that may be all the motivation they need to try and enslave us, or worse."

"Which is why I chose to incorporate UNSC technology into our own, and that has jumped our civilization nearly 300 years ahead. Granted, it hasn't been fully integrated, and probably won't be for another 10 to 15 years, but with 500 years of experience, you and your people have given us a chance to learn from your mistakes and advance our civilization beyond anything imaginable. And think what our Naval force could turn into if they had experienced men like you and Admiral Cutter."

"I'm sorry, but the answer is still no, Mr. President. I will, though, vouch for Cutter. He's one of the best Captains I ever had under me. I know he'll do everything in his power to turn the Alliance Navy into the power house it needs to be."

President Santiago sighed. He knew that Cole would be tough to crack through. He could see it the moment he met the man during Parliament's first meeting with the man. And from the combat videos that the Everest's databanks showed them, it looked like the UNSC was losing its fight with the Covenant. But it also showed that the man that he was speaking to right this moment was a _Goddamn Military Genius_. The type that appeared only once in a lifetime, like Sun Tzu, Charlemagne, or Rommel. The Alliance needed a man of his caliber.

"Will you at least consider being a Naval Instructor?"

Now it was Cole's turn to sigh. It wasn't necessarily Military Service, but it was still close enough to it to where it might influence him in the future. He wanted to distance himself from the enlisted life and settle down, start anew. But when you spent so many years in the Military fighting, its a hard habit to break out of and get away from.

Seeing that the War Hero was still pondering it, President Santiago was quick to speak, "I'll tell you what. Make you decision after we hear word from the Fleet after they finish their naval battle with the Rebels. They should be entering the system within the next 15 minutes."

At that moment, an intern came in and spoke up, "Mr. President, the Fleet is about to enter the system."

Santiago nodded and looked back to Cole, "Shall we head back?"

Cole knew the man, rather the Alliance, weren't going to relent on trying to reign him into service. But he made his mind up long before he met the Alliance. They proceeded back toward the main Parliament Room, where the highest ranking members of Parliament and the Military were gathered to watch the events unfold. A large television screen was set up on one of the walls of the room, an enormous theater-sized screen that filled over half of the the wall.

"Well, let's just see how this unfolds." Cole whispered to himself as he focused on the screen to watch the upcoming battle.

* * *

><p><em><strong>05.24.2105 - 9:18 a.m SAT (Standard Alliance Time)<br>10:18 a.m Local Time  
>Sirius System<br>**_**_365,000 Kilometers from Terra Nova  
>38,000 Kilometers from Kelvic (Moon)<em>**

In the Sirius System, 17 white portals opened up to expel the 17-strong Fleet of System Alliance Warships, ready to retake Terra Nova from the Rebel forces that had taken over the planet. The SSV-Spirit of Fire exited Slipspace at the center of a largely scattered Fleet, some of the ships being over 4,000 km from the Spirit of Fire.

As the ships exited Slipspace, Satellites in orbit of Terra Nova's moons, Kelvic and Durant, picked up the Slipspace entries and alerted the Rebel forces to the Alliance's presence in System. Battlestations were called on the 4 former Alliance Warships, crews running about and manning their post.

On the Planet's surface, at Yukima City, Rebel forces prepared barricades and defenses as AAA defenses were loaded with ammunition and prepped for the coming battle. Soldiers grabbed their various rifles and loaded up on supplies and ammunition, then proceed to their assigned position for a possible defense of the city.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Spirit of Fire-Bridge<strong>_

"Slipspace jump complete. All ships are being accounted for, Admiral." Ensign Holmes spoke. Rear Admiral Cutter nodded, and looked over to the holo-pad, which projected the Alliance's positions and the Rebel's positions above the planet. "How's the VI system holding up?"

The Virtual Intelligence, or VI, wasn't a full fledge AI. They wouldn't even classify as Dumb AIs, but in essence, they were designed to do the same things as a Dumb AI, just not quite as capable. A relatively brand new invention, one that had been in research and developement for the better part of 15 years before the first prototypes came out in 2102, they were first installed to help maintain and simplify city infrastructure, along with assisting humans on board ships. The Alliance Navy were some of the first ones to be installed with VI programs. In the Military, their main role is to assist with Naval Targeting and coordination of forces. And so far, they've been performing well in their roles.

But this would be their first test of the VIs in a combat situation.

"SENTINEL is reporting all systems are green and good to go. It's already communicating with the other VI systems and working to regroup the Fleet back into formation." the VI specialist spoke up. Good, he thought, at least that was going for them.

The Alliance Military's idea for VIs was the more of them there were together, the better their computing power and performance will be. The VIs were designed to work and coordinate together so that the naval ships can work and coordinate better. So far, it looked like it was working.

"Okay, I want standard screen from the Frigates, divided into two 5-ship groups in wedge formation, designations are ARROW-1 and ARROW-2. Spirit of Fire will have both destroyers on her flanks, standard wedge as well. Our designation is SWORD. Support Ships will hold back and stay out of the fight all together. Their designation will be SHIELD."

Communications went about sending out orders and Cutter turned to the holo-pad once more, "What's the enemy Fleet doing right now?"

"Sir, the enemy is maintaining position in front of Kelvic. Standard formation, Frigates in the front, Destroyers in the back."

"Good to know. What's the status of the SSV-Minsk?"

"Minsk is currently holding position about 100,000 kilometers above the planet's North Pole, well out of the Rebel Fleet's fire range. They've been sending out probes to scout out the Rebel Navy's position and to scout out what's going on groundside."

"Okay, send a message to the Minsk and tell them t-"

"Admiral, we're being hailed." Holmes spoke up.

"By who?"

"The Stalingrad, sir."

The Rebels were hailing them? Well now. What could they possibly have to say to him? Unless they were offering to surrender, he wasn't interested in whatever it was they were going to say. But, he decided he'll humor them and listen anyway. It would give his Fleet a few more minutes to get set up the way he wanted them.

"Patch them through."

An Officer handed him a data-pad, which he took in his hand and looked towards it as the screen changed to show an man of African descent, bald, late 30s, looking back at him.

"This is Admiral Cutter of the SSV-Spirit of Fire, Commander of the System Alliance's First Fleet. To whom am I speaking to?"

The African spoke, _'I am Captain Negasi Ruphael, Commander of the Defense Fleet of the Terra Nova Republic. This is now a sovereign nation to whose territory you are trespassing on. You are to leave now or you will be fire upon.'_

The Terra Nova Republic? That was fast. They have been planning this for a while.

"I don't think so. This is a Systems Alliance colony, therefore it has no sovereignty. I am ordering you to stand down, power down your weapon systems and surrender. If you surrender now, you have my word that you will be treated fairly and no harm shall come to you or your men. If you fail to do this, I will have no choice but to engage and destroy your forces."

The look of agitation on the Captain's face didn't go unnoticed by Cutter. He could see the look in the Captain's eyes that he was trying to look for some kind of edge over the larger and stronger Fleet.

_'We will not surrender. We are bound and determine to our cause. You will leave this system or you will be fired upon.'_

"Captain Ruphael, this is your only chance. Surrender your Fleet or I will engage. You will not get another chance to surrender." Cutter was starting to lose patient. Back during the years of the Insurrection, the UNSC wouldn't have even offered a chance to surrender unless the Rebels offered to first. They would have been put down and destroyed. But this wasn't the UNSC. President Santiago requested that he offer them a chance to surrender before going straight to the guns. He could already tell this was going to go nowhere, though.

He was in luck, though. Alliance Frigates and Destroyers were of similar hull designs, in order to ease manufacturing of the vessels. Hell, the Odysseus-Class were based off the Spirit of Fire's design, just on a smaller scale and no MAC gun. Their designs were also similar to and based off their UNSC counterparts, which gave Cutter an edge in this fight. He already knew the strengths and weaknesses of the vessels, along with their limitations. When this turned into a fight, he could already exploit this in the opening engagements.

_'Then I'm afraid we will fight.'_

That's all he needed to hear. He cuts the connection with the Rebel Captain and snaps the data-pad onto his pad holster on his belt.

* * *

><p>He looked back to the holo-pad, and over towards the two battlegroups of Frigates projected just 2,000 kilometers ahead of his trio of ships on their flanks.<p>

"ARROW-1 and 2, are you in position, over?"

_'Affirmative, Spirit of Fire. We're ready to go, over.'_

"Roger that. You are clear to proceed. Move into firing positions and prepare to fire on my command, out."

_'Roger, that. Moving, ARROW-1 and 2, out.'_

"Spin up our MAC gun and tell the Destroyers to do the same." Cutter barked out as the sound of the Spirit's 150 ton gun warming up and prepping to fire. The Destroyers 'Gettysburg' and 'Somme' diverged further away from the Dreadnought and warmed up their own MAC guns as well. The 150 ton MAC guns, when ready, could fire three times before the weapon had to cool down and reload, otherwise the MAC's coils would be melted and render the gun useless. Able to reach out and hit targets at upwards of 40,000 kilometers while traveling 100 km/s, they were designed to pierce and tear apart armored targets and basically gut them.

The 50 ton Mini-MACs, however, were designed for mass volley fire. Having a cluster of Frigates fire simultaneously and overwhelm the enemy with quantity of fire, sacrificing killing power for speed and rate of fire, capable of firing 4 rounds every minute at 150 km/s. However, the Frigates would normally fire only 3 rounds before cooling down and recharging, due to the fact that firing all 4 rounds in rapid succession have been known to cause damage to the coils.

"Sir, MAC gun spinning up. ETA to ready, 2 minutes. Same is being reported for the Destroyers."

"Good. We should be in optimal firing range by then. What of the Frigates?"

"They'll be in position in about 30 seconds."

"Sir, Enemy Fleet is firing a massive missile volley at ARROW-1. Count is at a little over 600 missiles and counting."

Hundreds of red dots were shown streaming towards ARROW-1's position on the holo-pad. Shit, he thought. The armor of those Frigates should be able to hold off the missiles, but each one was going to get at least 120 missiles that they would have to deal with. That was going to cause some significant damage to their hulls.

"Tell them evasive maneuvers and shoot down as many missiles as they can. ARROW-2 move in and fire MAC salvo at the enemy."

The Frigates of ARROW fired with their 50mm deck guns and numerous AA guns positioned across the hull, the SENTINEL VIs coordinating the guns to accurately aim and destroy numerous missiles in rapid succession. The Frigates and their new VIs preformed admirably, but the sheer number of them overwhelmed the Frigates' defense.

All in all, a little under 350 missiles still reached their targets. Missiles slammed into the hulls of the Frigates, causing explosions and fires all across the hulls of the Alliance Vessels. The fires were quickly put out by the crews as the decks' atmospheres were vented. "OK, good. The crews were paying attention to my instructions on ship fires." He muttered to himself. His data-pad was already sending him damage reports from ARROW-1.

_/ARROW-1 Damage Report\_

_/SSV-Cairo:  
>Hull Integrity: 82%<br>Casualties: 62 KIA, 23 WIA_

_SSV-Madrid:  
>Hull Integrity: 76%<br>Casualties: 50 KIA, 35 WIA_

_SSV-Bangkok  
>Hull Integrity: 79%<br>Casualties: 78 KIA, 21 WIA_

_SSV-New Delhi  
>Hull Integrity: 61%<br>Casualties: 101 KIA, 45 WIA_

_SSV-Wellington  
>Hull Integrity: 69%<br>Casualties: 80 KIA, 48 WIA\_

_/Total Casualties: 371 KIA, 172 WIA\_

_/End Report\_

Casualties were already to be expected, this Cutter knew. But they were lower than he expected. So far, a good thing.

He could see on the holo-pad ARROW-2 counting down to fire, before the count went to zero. 10 Mini-MACs thundered to life as their 50 ton payload went sailing to their targets, followed 5 seconds later by 10 more, then another 10 rounds 5 seconds after that salvo. The 30 MAC rounds went sailing through space towards their targets, that were 16,000 kilometers away, travelling at 150 km/s.

"MAC rounds away. ETA to targets, 1 min 50 secs."

"Good. Once we get a little closer, we'll open fire as well." Cutter spoke up.

Ensign Holmes spoke up, "Sir, SSV-Cairo from ARROW-1 is reporting a strange signal close to their battlegroup coming from a cluster of missile debris. They don't recognise the sign-"

An mini-star appeared in the blackness of space, engulfing the 5 Frigates in a fiery mini-nova. The Alliance personnel were horrified and confused as to what they were witnessing, but Rear Admiral Cutter and the UNSC personnel knew full well what that was.

A SHIVA-class nuclear weapon detonating in space.

In space, there was nothing to offer resistance to a nuclear weapon when detonating, meaning every bit of the weapon's energy was used and expelled in the blast, multiplying its killing and destructive power. The five Frigates stood no chance against the nuke, not when it exploded from 10 kilometers away.

Rear Admiral Cutter couldn't believe himself. He had completely forgotten that Alliance Destroyers had a nuclear weapon stored on board. To his credit, before coming here to the Systems Alliance, he hadn't fought a against an Insurrectionist Ship in 8 years, 5 of those were spent fighting the Covenant. He wasn't used to fighting Rebels who had nukes. And the bastards just deployed it to neutralize five Frigates. He could see on the Holo-pad that they were still alive, but their hull were showing badly damaged, barely holding together, and thousands dead. "Goddammit." He muttered.

His incompetence and lack of consideration had gotten 5 ships knocked out and a couple thousand dead.

* * *

><p>Shock and horror ran amok the ships of the Systems Alliance. They all had just watched five state-of-the art ships get decimated in basically one move. Ensign Holmes could only look in horror as her screen kept showing the casualty figures, which kept rolling in, numbering in the thousands at this point.<p>

"S-sir, Enemy Fleet is firing MAC guns."

He turned to the Officer who spoke, "At who?"

"At ARROW-1, sir."

Admiral Cutter's eyes widened at this, _'Jesus, they're gonna finish them off while they can't fight!', _he turned to Comms, "Holmes, contact them. Tell them they have to shut down and restart their engines, that EMP's effect will be nullified. It's the only way they're gonna be able to move and avoid certain death. Do it, now."

Ensign Holmes, however, was still in shock as to what she just saw, didn't move. Her eyes were glued to the screen in front of her. "REBECCA! CONTACT THEM NOW OR THEY'RE GOING TO DIE!" The sudden shouting snapped her out of her daze and she scrambled to establish communications with the five ships. She sent out one message, but there was no response. She sent out another, but no response.

The closeness of the nuke's detonation and the EMP wave were probably the culprits responsible for this lack of communications. However, UNSC ships were designed with countermeasures to combat the effects of an EMP, so the Alliance ships, which were based off the UNSC, did have a chance to survive the coming onslaught.

"T-they're not responding. I-I-I can't raise them." She stuttered out.

"1 minute 30 secs till impact!"

"Keep trying to raise them, they have to restart their engines. If they don't, they can't fire their emergency thrusters to move out of the way."

Holmes kept trying to raise the immobile Battlegroup, but still no response came from any of the ships. She mentally cursed as she tried once more to raise them.

She slammed her fists in frustration on the typing pad as she yell out, "Sir, I can't. I've tried everything I can think of to try and get ahold of them, but nothing's working. Their communications relays must have been damaged or destroyed by the nuke."

Cutter knew he had to act, there were still at least a thousand people alive on those five ships. If there was a chance to save them, he would do everything in his power to do it. He could possibly use his... no. That wasn't an option. He was going to save lives by sacrificing his ship's personnel.

He ran over to the now panicking Holmes, and kneel down next to her. "Ensign Holmes, listen. You can do this." Holmes was desperately trying to contact the ships now, her hands looked like they were typing a thousand words a minute. "Rebecca, you can raise them. I know you can. You have to try." He tried being as comforting as he could be but also tried to show the urgency in them reestablishing communications.

"Sir, Battlegroup SWORD is requesting orders."

"Tell them to pick their targets and fire at will, same with the Spirit of Fire." He turned back to Holmes, leaning close and placing a hand on her shoulder, "Holmes, it takes a Frigate 20 seconds to shut down and restart its engines. You still have plenty of times, keep trying." The Spirit of Fire's MAC gun thundered as the cannon fired, lightning striking outward as the first MAC round went flying out towards its target. 8 seconds later, another MAC round went flying out. The Destroyers fired away with their own MAC guns

He got up and went back to the holo-pad, just in time to hear, "Sir, one of the Enemy Frigates was hit by two Mini-MAC rounds. She's lost an engine and her main gun is losing power. They're evacuating the ship." No cheers were given. One enemy ship at the cost of five wasn't anything to celebrate over.

* * *

><p>Rebecca Holmes was desperately trying to reestablish communications with the disabled Battlegroup ARROW-1. "ARROW-1, come in, over." She called out.<p>

"45 seconds till impact with ARROW-1." An Officer shouted out.

"Damn. Damn. Damn! ARROW-1, come in. You need to restart your engines, over." She pleaded out, desperate to receive some kind of confirmation of the order from the Frigate cluster. The enemy rounds were closing in and they were running out of time. She saw an alert come up on her screen, indicating lifepods were being deployed from the Frigates. In total, she could count about 26 lifepods in total deployed from the Frigates.

She breaths a sigh of relief, there would be survivors after all.

"30 seconds till impact. Sir, I'm detecting lifepods being deployed from ARROW-1."

Cutter heard and responded to the alert, "Good, have the Minsk move in. Commence a search and rescue mission."

On the holo-pad, the icons of the lifepods were shown moving slowly away from the the battered Battlegroup. But they weren't moving fast enough for Admiral Cutter's comfort. If one of those ships' engine decided to go critical, a good portion of those lifepods would get caught in the blast.

"15 seconds till impact."

"Come on. Come on. Get away from the damn ships." Cutter muttered under his breath, watching the lifepods slowly drift away while the incoming salvo were screaming towards the doomed Frigates.

"Impact in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1..."

All but 2 of the MAC rounds connected with the Frigates, slamming into them and utterly devastating the ships. The SSV-'New Delhi', the worst damaged of the five, was split in half by two Mini-MACs hitting it in the center. The SSV-'Wellington' didn't fair any better, taking a 150-ton round to the engines, tearing through them. The impact caused them to critical, and the ship exploded in a fiery mini-nova. Sure enough, several lifepods were caught in the blast and winked out of existence.

There were now only 17 lifepods being shown on the holo-pad.

The other three ships, while still being hit, fared better than the New Delhi and Wellington. They were still heavily damaged and out of the fight, but their hulls were mostly intact, so they could still be repaired and brought back into service.

But that was going to take months, even a year before that happened. That and he had to win this battle first.

* * *

><p>"Sir, the Rebel Ships are separating. I don't understand. What are they doing?"<p>

Rear Admiral Cutter observed the holo-pad. Sure enough, the Rebel Ships were moving away from one another. He narrowed his eyes, knowing full well what they were doing, "They're trying to level the playing field some more. Trying to separate us and take us out one by one."

It wasn't a bad strategy. The goal wasn't to win. The goal was to inflict as many casualties as possible by dividing the Fleet up and picking it apart piece by piece. And so far, they've been doing a damn good job of that. But he was done taking the beating. It was time to dish it back out.

He began to formulate a plan in his mind, when a stroke of genius came to him. One straight from Admiral Cole's Playbook.

"What's the status of Battlegroup SWORD's MAC guns?"

"Sir, all guns are ready to fire."

"Good. Prep MAC guns to full charge and tell both Destroyers to prep a missile salvo and arm their nuclear warheads."

This order would have normally given pause for the Alliance Personnel, but after watching thousands of friends and family get butchered in the blink of an eye, there was only one thing on their minds. That there would be blood. That they would have payback for their comrades.

There would be _Vengeance_.

"Done. Shall I give the order to fire, Sir?"

"Negative. Tell SWORD to prepare for an immediate Slipspace Jump to these coordinates." Cutter typed in the coordinates onto the holo-pad.

Upon seeing the destination, the Officer's eyes widened, "S-sir, these coordinates will put us dangerously close to-"

"I'm aware, son. That's the idea. They'll never see it coming." Admiral Cutter actually smiled some at the devious, and risky, plan he had brewing in his mind, knowing that the Rebels won't see it coming. In the words of a more vulgar man, that Rebel Destroyer was about to have its entire world fucked up.

"All ships are ready to jump."

"Commence Jump."

3 white portals appeared in front of the trio of ships. Battlegroup SWORD entered Slipspace and disappeared from the battle, utterly confusing the ships still caught in the battle.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Sol System<br>Alliance Parliament, London**_

"What the hell is he doing?! Did he just leave the battle?" An Alliance Politician angrily shouted, outraged by the sudden and confusing move. The sudden disappearance of the Alliance's most powerful warships shocked the entire Parliament room. None of them could make sense of what Rear Admiral Cutter was doing.

President Carlos Santiago was unnerved, to say the least, didn't dare show it to anyone in the room. He couldn't afford to look weak. However, the shocking loss of 5 Alliance warships so quickly had shaken everyone in the room. The battle had only been going on for a total of about 10 minutes and the Alliance had already loss some 2800 personnel. He was glad the Admiral had kept the Support Ships back. He didn't want to think of how many would have died if that nuke had detonated amongst the Troop Transports.

"Admiral Cole, do you have any input as to why Admiral Cutter appeared to flee the battle?"

Cole, however, didn't hear him. He was simply smiling as he watch the battle unfold on the screen. He knew full well what Cutter was doing. And it was a move right out of his playbook from the Human-Covenant War. He knew the Rebels will never see it coming.

"Simple, he didn't. This battle will be over in the next 5 minutes."

President Santiago simply looked at the man with intrigue, "And... What make you think that?"

"Because he's pulling a stunt from my own playbook, Mr. President. Trust me, this fight's about to be over."

"And what makes you so sure, Admiral?" A Politician spoke up.

Cole turned and faced the crowd, "Because I know that man better than any of you in this room. And I know he's not the type to run away from a fight. He's going to win this fight."

After he finished speaking, he turned back to the screen to continue watching the battle unfold. Santiago continued to eye the man for a little longer before he turned to the screen as well, his mind having numerous things to think about already. This Battle was already going to be a nightmare with the public.

But, then again, this could be the spark he needs to get approval from Parliament for an expansion of the Alliance Navy. 35 ships was not enough to effectively guard 14 systems. If they could raise the number to 90 or at the very least double this number, then the Alliance could be able to effective guard and protect its territory. Now he was starting to really ponder it.

If they could maintain a building average of 4 ships per system while colonizing at least 2 systems every year, then hopefully the Alliance navy would have a standing force of some 380 ships, give or take, by the year 2150. Alliance scientist have already estimated that they should encounter an Alien Civilization by the year 2150, and the words of both Cutter and Cole were both ringing in his head that they should be prepared for the worst when that day comes.

In the words of a famous United States President, speak softly and carry a big stick. Wouldn't hurt to have a few big ones on first contact, right?

* * *

><p><em><strong>05.29.2105<br>Serpent Nebula  
>Widow System<br>Council Chambers, Citadel**_

_"On behalf of the Batarian Hegemony, I thank you for allowing me to have an audience with you today, Councilors." _The Batarian Ambassador spoke.

In front of him on raised platforms, stood the councilors of the Citadel. The three most powerful people in the known Galaxy, representing the three most powerful races in the known Galaxy. Councilor Hyleen, of the Turian Hierarchy. Councilor Kilish, of the Salarian Union. And Councilor Tevos, of the Asari Republics. They were the collective heads of the Citadel Council, the ones who made the final decision on all key issues of the Galaxy. Such as the one they were hearing out today.

_"Ambassador Gulen, I hope whatever you demanded this meeting for is worth our time." _Councilor Kilish replied, narrowing his eyes as if to get the point across.

_"I assure you, Councilor. I would not be hear if the issue was not a serious one."_

_"Then, speak."_

_"Very well." _The Batarian tapped a few commands onto his Omni-tool and a projector screened a rocky planet with several Supply Depots around it, _"This is Rugon-1, just one of 4 of our Resupply Center bordering the Perseus Veil. We established these supply centers in case we needed to set up a defense against a Geth Assault."_

'Bullshit. Those are where you process slaves captured in those regions of the Terminus System.' Was what Councilor Hyleen was thinking, but didn't speak aloud. He wasn't in the mood to listen to the Batarian screech about their slave practice being a Batarian Cultural Heritage or whatever the hell they called it.

He personally didn't hated the Batarians, just their backwards Civilization as a whole. The very idea of owning slaves disgusted him. He wanted nothing more than to overthrow their oppressive regime, but Tevos was unwilling to start a war in the Terminus System, and Kilish didn't seem to care one way or the other. His hands were effectively tied. So, whatever was giving the Batarians hell was okay in his book, as long as it didn't cross over to Citadel Space.

_"Roughly 1 week ago, the 9th Fleet was conducting a patrol in the region and traveled to the Kandul System, where they were attacked and destroyed by an Unknown Fleet."_

This caught the Council's attention. Tevos finally spoke up, _"Who attacked the Fleet? Was it the Geth?" _Had they finally decided to leave the Perseus Veil and start venturing outward? Goddess help them if they had.

_"This is what we thought at first, but a single cruiser, Fiery Glory, survived the engagement and reported that the ships didn't match any known Geth signatures. The Fleet was compromised of 15 ships, all of them being massive, with even one of them being 6 km in length."_

_"Impossible. There's no way a ship of that size could exist. The Eezo needed to power such a monster would be ridiculous." _Kilish spoke, obviously not convinced, as did the other Councilors.

Ambassador Gulen tapped another command on his Omni-tool, and the projector screened a photo of a massive purple ship, bulbous and very strange in design to the Councilors.

_"I assure you, Councilors, I'm not making this up. I didn't believe it myself when I was told about it until I was shown the combat video recorded from a scout probe during the battle." _He pressed a button and the projector began to play the probe's recording.

* * *

><p>The Council watched in silence as the video showed the battle between the two Fleets. The Batarians were firing everything in their arsenal at the massive warships, but the Unknowns seemed to have incredibly advance barriers. None of the ship's barriers seemed to break under the onslaught of fire as the Batarian Fleet fired round after round into the hostile ships.<p>

Then the Unknowns returned fire.

In a display that visibly shocked the Council, the Unknown Ships fired with what appeared to be Plasma Weaponry, tearing through the Batarian ships as if they were nothing. They tore through the armor, setting numerous ships ablaze and alight. The cruisers and dreadnoughts attempted to pull back so they could fire their main weapons, but something happened before they could.

The massive warship opened fire with a dozen bluish color blobs of plasma that flew through space towards their targets. The Frigates tried to shoot them down with their GUARDIAN lasers, but were shown to be ineffective against the strange weapons. They continued towards their targets. After a few more moments, all but one of the dozen projectiles connected with their targets. The results were gruesome to say the least. One Dreadnought was cleaved in half as the Plasma burned and melted away the armor of the 1 km vessel. A Cruiser was hit in the engines and set alight, exploding into a fiery mini-nova. All the other vessels met similar fates before the video ended.

_"The Cruiser fled to Rugon-1 and reported the incident to the local Garrison, each of which were comprised of 20 Frigates and 10 Cruisers for each of the Resupply Centers. 3 days later, All four systems were attacked simultaneously. We don't have any video of the battles, but I do have photos of the aftermath of these battles."_

He pressed a button on his Omni-tool and the picture of Rugon-1 changed from a rocky planet with several settlements shown dotting the planet, to a wartorn planet. All the settlements were scorched craters, the massive Resupply Centers in orbit were nothing more than fiery wreckage, along with the corpses of the slain Batarian warships. All three of the Councilors were left speechless by the carnage being shown to them. Tevos, mortified, had her hand raised halfway, almost as if she was going to cover her mouth in shock.

* * *

><p><em>"It's the same case for all of the Resupply Systems. This has been a massive, devastating blow to our Military capacity in the Northern Terminus Systems. We won't be able to effectively operate in these areas for at least 10 years." <em>

Gulen was fairly certain that he had them sold, and they would lend support to the Hegemony. It was a good thing they left out the part about the Quarians being in the System, but in all likelihood they wouldn't have cared. Now, they could get some payback on these _Bastards_ who dared insult and attacked the Hegemony. Nobody gets away with that.

Hyleen was impressed. Those weapons were far more advance than anything the Council Races had. That kind of technology was something to die for. He could only imagine what the Hierarchy could do with those weapons. And while he wouldn't admit it aloud, he was glad someone was knocking the Batarians down a couple notches.

Kilish would love to get his hands on that technology as well. This was obviously not some newcomer race they were dealing with. Those ships were massive and were superior to anything the Citadel Races had. He needed to get some more info on these Newcomers and find out just how powerful they are and what the STG could do to get their hands on their technology.

Tevos, was unnerved to say the least about this apparently violent race. They needed to be either reasoned with or dealt with before this turned into another Rachni War. While she didn't love the Batarians' slave-loving Empire, she knew that if they fell apart, the whole Terminus Systems would fall into anarchy. While the technology was impressive, she wasn't sure if this new race would be willing to negotiate and submit to the Citadel Council.

Ambassador Gulen, noticing the look on their faces, decided to seal the deal. He spoke up once more, _"There was one more thing. When we entered the systems, a message was left in each system. The message was the same in every system." _

He typed a command onto his Omni-tool, and the message played.

_'Attention Batarian fiends, your wretched days of a Slave-Driven Empire are numbered. We will rid this Galaxy of your filth. We are the Swords and Shields of the Great Journey. We are the Covenant.'_

The Covenant? Great Journey? Was this actually a coalition of races and not just one? This was quickly deteriorating into a dangerous situation. But what was said next sent nerve-shattering shivers down the Council's spines.

_'Your destruction is the will of the Gods. And we are their instruments.'  
><em>

* * *

><p><strong><em>30 minutes later<br>Private Chambers_**

_"This is a very disturbing matter. We need to decide quickly on what our course of action is." _Tevos spoke. The three Councilors were seated at a small round table in what was basically a private room for the Council to retreat to if they didn't want to be bothered.

Hyleen scoffed, _"I say let them kick down the Batarians a few more notches before we step in."_

_"Are you insane? If the Hegemony falls-"_

_"Then the Terminus Systems will go on like nothing happened. Those lawless systems haven't change in 2000 years, why would they now? Just because some new race comes in and kicks out the Batarians? That doesn't mean they're gonna lash out at us for it. Hell, Aria will probably sit there in her little fortress and laugh about the whole ordeal."_

_"I agree with Hyleen. Their Oppressive-Government should have been taken down centuries ago. I say we let the... 'Covenant' beat down the Batarians. Not just outright destroy them, but weaken them enough so that they might not have enough of Military Capacity to maintain order in their Territory. And then, we'll step in and negotiate a peace treaty between the two."_ Councilor Kilish piped in.

Tevos wasn't surprised by Kilish taking sides with Hyleen. He would take sides with whichever side would benefit the Salarian Union more. The chance of the STG acquiring advance technology that was far greater than anything they had ever seen before was too good to pass up. That is, if they could get their hands on it first and if the Batarians could actually take down one of these 'Covenant' ships, which they didn't seem to be able to at the moment.

But Tevos knew that the technology, and this was just from what she saw from the video, that the 'Covenant' were using was far more advance than even the Asari Republics. Anyone of the massive warships looked like they would tear apart anything the Asari Navy had. As much as she didn't want to, it maybe was time to expand and upgrade the Asari Military. She knew the other Councilors were already thinking this thought, and the Asari needed to keep their edge over the other races.

Hyleen was seeing this as a golden opportunity to take down the Hegemony and increase Citadel influence in the Terminus Systems. Plus, there were bound to be some Covenant Ships lost in the conflict, ships that could be studied and reverse-engineered to leap Turian Society forward by hundreds of year, making them a powerhouse, no... _the _powerhouse of the Galaxy.

Tevos sighed, knowing that she had been outvoted by the other two Councilors, _"Despite that, we can't sit here and do nothing throughout the conflict. We have to lend support or we'll appear to the other races that we don't support our allies in times of need." _

Hyleen once again scoffed, _"Tell that to the Quarians." _Unlike most Turians, he didn't hate the Quarians. Did they break the law? Yes, but it wasn't intentional. Do they deserve to go extinct over this? No. It was an accident plain and simple.

Tevos glared at him, _"They broke Galactic Law when they created the Geth. Their punishment was completely just for the illegal creation of AIs."_

_"Regardless, we will lend just enough support to keep the other races quiet, while at the same time, it won't be enough to turn the tide in the Hegemony's favor. We'll patrol their systems and give them a heads up if we catch wind At the same time, STG will lie in wait, shadowing the Batarian Fleets and waiting for them to engage this 'Covenant'. When the battles are over, they'll go in and salvage the wrecks for anything valuable. Weapons, Armor, Databanks, etc."_

Kilish leaned in, bringing his hands together, _"It seems reasonable. I think it's a sound strategy. It should get us some major technological advancements, or at least a couple eye-opening techs. How much support will we give them?"_

Tevos went deep in thought, trying to see what kind of support the Republics would give the Hegemony. She knew the Republics wouldn't be too keen on giving the Slavers any form of support, especially since they had a fondness for Asari slaves. She figured the most they would be willing to send was a Patrol Fleet's worth of ships.

After giving it much thought, Tevos spoke up, _"We could send 4 Patrol Fleets, 1 Asari, 3 Turian; along with an STG element totaling 8 ships, Cruiser-Class. All in all, the total would compromise of about 14 Asari, 42 Turian, and 8 STG ships. In terms of ground forces, I don't think we should provide any. Batarians aren't the most popular people in the Galaxy, and placing boots on the ground on colonies that are bound to have slaves on them is asking to for an incident to happen." _

Hyleen nodded, _"Fair enough. How long should we wait before talking about negotiating a peace treay?"_

_"1... 2 months maximum_._" _Kilish assured, confident in that statement, which also stated his sureness that this conflict won't be that long.

Tevos didn't look so certain. She spoke up once more, _"I'm still not fully convinced this is the path we should take. I think that if one of our Fleets encounter this 'Covenant', we should open communications with them first, try diplomacy before resorting to violence." _

_"Very well, but I'm not convinced that they'll listen much." _Hyleen spoke, _"If there is nothing else, I'd say this meeting is __adjourned. We should go tell the Batarian Ambassador our decision." _

They all rose from the table and set about to return to the Council Chambers, Kilish stopped when he received a message on his Omni-tool, that read top secret. He opened up the message and read it.

* * *

><p><em>Priority Message__\  
>To: Councilor Kilish\  
>From: __STG Black Ops: 5th & 6th Battalions[]Jerlys System, Terminus Systems\  
>Operation: Revelations\  
><em>_/Security Level: OMEGA\_

_/Message Details:_

_Councilor, our progress at the Facility is still proceeding, albeit at a slow pace. __The security of the Space Station is proving more complex than previously expected._

_ Our scientist have been conducting test on the site, and have come to a startling conclusion. This facility isn't Prothean in origin. In fact, they claim the site is at least 100,000 years old. This site predates the Protheans and must have belong to a Civilization that came before them. Another surprising discovery is that despite the age of the facility, it appears to still have power and is still operating, and it doesn't run on Element Zero. We're still trying to figure out how this is possible, but most of the doors are heavily locked and secured. _

_Ever since we discovered the site a year ago, we've been able to access and explore roughly 15% of the Facility, due to its massive size and our limited numbers. I'm requesting another 2 Battalions of STG to help in the exploration of the site._

_We have also had a new development in the exploration of the Facility. We've come into contact with what appear to be some kind of Security Drones that are present in the Facility. We're not convinced that their AIs, but they're far more advanced than some mere VI program. A couple of instance, we were engaged by these drones and lost several soldiers to them every time we come into contact with them. But, if we retreat, they don't pursue us. It's as if they don't want us here and want us to leave. Nonetheless, we've continued our exploration and have quickly come up with countermeasures to combat these drones. _

_On a side note, I've been having this strange feeling every time we enter the Facility, like we're being watched. And I don't mean by the drones. I'm fully convinced that something else is in the Facility, watching and waiting. For what, I don't know. But we'll continue to explore the site and update you on any new developments._

_End Message\_

* * *

><p>Kilish was pleased for the most part about the update, albeit worried a little about the drones. As for the mention of being watched... well, all soldiers get cold feet every now and then, so he didn't think much of it.<p>

This was the Salarian Union's most heavily guarded secret. Only himself and the STG units involved knew about the site, some kind of Facility orbiting a Gas Giant in the Jerlys System.

He started typing on his Omni-tool, and wrote back a reply.

_/Excellent news. Keep sending updates every 2 weeks on your progress. As for the request for Reinforcements, approved. However, they will not be able to arrive for about a week due to recent developement.\_

After he finished typing, he sent the message and proceeded back outside to catch up with the other Councilors to inform the Batarian Ambassador of their decision.

He just hope this wouldn't come back and bite the Citadel Council in the collective ass.

* * *

><p><strong>And that's all for this chapter. Left the battle between the Alliance and the Rebels on a bit of a cliffhanger, and introduced<strong>**the Citadel Council finally, which will go over changes and different leaders as the years progress. We will go back to the battle of Terra Nova, as well as show the battle on the groundside. The Covenant's war with the Batarians won't last, but things are heating up. And the new found Alliance with the Quarians will be explored in more detail next chapter. **

**BTW, thanks again for all the support and input that's been given. I just wanted to go ahead and thank a few people who actual sent me a private message and either gave me some ideas to explore for the future or gave me some constructive criticism and pointed out some flaws in my story that needed to be fixed. **

* * *

><p><strong>StarSerpent- Thank you for taking the time to pm me and pointing out some key flaws in my story. I know that marathon of a message must have taken forever to write.<strong>

**War Cry- You pm me and gave me some pretty awesome ideas for me to consider and I'm definitely going to use a couple of them in the future. **

**revan913- You asked me a couple key canon questions that influenced what I will write into future chapters.**

**project 501D13R- You pointed out the flaws in my original MAC numbers and made me realized just how OP they were. **

* * *

><p><strong>Thank you all for your support and input for my story. It really helps out when the fans write the author and give input or call out some flaws in the story. I hope you continue to show this support and encourage others to do the same in future chapters.<strong>

**As for my earlier statement of possibly pursuing a minor romance in the story, I've decided against it for now. I'm going to focus on building the story up and setting the stage for the events of the Mass Effect Games. I'm already starting to think this story will have to be split into two separate stories.**

**Anyway, that's all for now. Hope you enjoyed. See you next time. :)**


	5. Gunboat Diplomacy

**Hey guys, welcome back. I have some interesting news to tell you that I think you might like. **

**First off, I am considering dividing this into a 3 Book series. Haven't decided yet, but would love your imput on this. I'm also going to add a codex in the future (probably as a separate book.) to help everyone understand this new Mass Effect Universe.**

**Second off, I just thought I'd let you guys know that this chapter is going to be the final one set in 2105. We've been kinda dragging on the Covenant's rampage through the Terminus Systems and the Terra Nova incident. The next chapter won't jump ahead to much I hope, but it will more than likely jump ahead by at least 10 years. (Alert, there will be a short timeline for those who don't like them.) This Chapter is more than likely going to be a little longer than the previous. (By at least 3,000 words.)**

**Thirdly, some of you are under a impression I felt I needed to discuss. The Salarians haven't found a Halo. But they have found a Forerunner Facility, I'm just not going into detail as to what exactly.**

**Anyway, now that that's out of the way, Enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

><p><strong>Now that that's out of the way. <strong>

**I don't own Halo or Mass Effect**

**Bold-My Own Words**

**_Bold & Italic-Locations, Time & Calendar_**

Normal-Narrative

"Normal"-Person Speaking

'Normal'-Thoughts

_"Italic"-Foreign Languague_

_'Italic'-Radio Chatter_

_/Italic\-AI/Computer typing_

* * *

><p><strong><em>05.24.2105 - 9:30 a.m SAT (Standard Alliance Time)<br>10:30 a.m Local Time  
>Sirius System<br>Kelvic's Orbit, 326,000 km from Terra Nova  
>SSV-Stalingrad Bridge<em>**

"Where the hell did they go?" Captain Negasi Ruphael spoke, wondering what the hell the Alliance Commander was doing. Was he retreating? No. The Alliance Frigates were still fighting and firing their weapons at them, so they couldn't of been retreating. The Republic had lost one ship, the Frigate 'Malta', but now they could possibly win this fight. Whatever the Alliance heavy ships went, they had bought the Republic ships precious time to finish off the remaining enemy Frigates, further increasing the chances of winning the battle. They seemed to be having unprecedented luck today.

In truth, Negasi being in charge of this ship now was sheer luck. When the Governor of Terra Nova had told him of plans to succeed from the Alliance, he wanted in almost immediately. His family in Ethiopia had been killed by raiders 2 years prior, and the Alliance didn't do anything about it. He wanted justice.

And he found it.

Taking the Alliance Destroyer and its escorts while they had been on patrol in the system had been incredible risky and costly. They timed the uprising to coincide with the arrival of the small task force. They had used a barrage of transports, as well as several crewmembers on board the vessels sympathetic, or being blackmailed, to overwhelm the Alliance military staff and take over the ships. The Captain had been taken out so quickly, he had been unable to get rid of the SHIVA nuke or its activation codes on board, which had only given the Republic one more weapon to fight back with.

And now he was in charge of 4 Military vessels trying to defend a revolting colony of 1.2 million against a force 51 million soldiers and 30 something ships.

They had lost one ship, but considering they've taken out 5 of the Alliance ships, the kill/death ratio was... acceptable. It still hurt to see friends and comrades getting killed, but at least most of the people on board had been able to evacuate. Now, time to see this fight to its conclusion. The Republic Frigates were moving out and were going to attempt to flank the enemy Frigates, while the 'Stalingrad' continued firing away with its MAC gun.

Now, where the fuck did those damn heavy ships go?

* * *

><p>"Captain, we have picked up some energy readings about 300 kilometers to our 10 O'clock."<p>

"Can we identify?"

"Yes, sir. One moment." Even though they knew how to pilot ships, that didn't mean they were experienced with Military ships.

They're systems commenced to scan the energy reading, when suddenly 3 white portals appeared in front of the 'Stalingrad'. Ruphael's eyes widened in horror as he watched the SSV-'Spirit of Fire', 'Gettysburg', and 'Somme' appear out of Slipspace. Now, too late, he realized what the Admiral was doing.

He screamed out for the ship to turn towards the oncoming Dreadnought, but the ship would never turn in time.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Spirit of Fire<br>B**__**ridge**_

"That's right, you son of a bitch." Rear Admiral James Cutter smiled before turning to the weapons station, "MAC gun, FIRE!"

The Spirit's MAC Gun thundered to life as the 150 ton slug screamed out towards the 'Stalingrad', causing the entire ship to shutter. 3 seconds later, the round slammed into the stern of the Destroyer, tearing the engines apart. The sudden impact lurched the ship and caused it to tilt downward as the speed of its turn was sped up.

"Second round, fire!" Cutter roared out as the MAC Gun roared once more, sending another slug down towards the Destroyer. The second round slammed into the Destroyer's MAC Gun, tearing apart the weapon and rendering it useless.

"Spirit of Fire, move in, prepare broadside weapons and launch missile barrage. Destroyers 'Gettysburg' and 'Somme', pursue enemy Frigates and take them down."

The holo-pad showed the two Destroyers moving out and launching missiles at the Rebel Frigates, before firing their broadside deck guns. The Spirit of Fire fired its own missile barrage and broadside deck guns at the crippled Destroyer. The 'Stalingrad' tried desperately to shoot down the missiles and defend itself from the onslaught, but was overwhelmed by the firepower sent its way. A couple hundred missiles connected with the hull and multiple explosions dotted the warship. The 100mm rounds slammed into the Bridge section of the ship, compromising the hull and venting the atmosphere, killing everyone inside.

"Sir, Stalingrad has been neutralized. Gettysburg and Somme are reporting enemy Frigates are neutralized as well."

Cutter turned back to the holo-pad, "Good. Tell ARROW-2 to move in and prepare for groundside fire support. Battlegroup SHIELD is clear to move in and deploy Marines groundside."

Cutter pulled out his Data-pad and typed in some commands, "ODST and RED Team, prepare for Combat Drop in T-minus 15 minutes."

He turned to one of the Officers on the Bridge next to him, "What's the status of Alliance ground forces already fighting?"

"Sir, most Regiments have been routed. The 294th Regiment of the 31st Marine Division is trying to hold onto Fort Gilgamesh near the town of Devos, about 72 km Northwest of Yukima City. They're outnumbered 3 to 1 by Rebel Forces. The nearest unit would be the 85th ACR of the 10th Mechanized Division, about 20 km West of the base. Other than that, all other Regiments and the Terra Nova Colonial Guards have been routed or are combat ineffective."

"Alright, then. We'll focus the majority of our deployment in that region, create a Front in which to push back the Rebels to the Capital."

The Holo-pad changed to show the geography surrounding Fort Gilgamesh. Lush, hilly, green forest surrounded the Fort to the North and West. Grasslands stretched out for miles to the East and South. Multiple red dots were shown surrounding the Fort from 3 separate directions, while the Marines were shown in blue holding off the onslaught.

The Fort itself was a basic design for Colonial Forts, with several Barracks and Motor Pools for the vehicles. A large Building was in the center and served as the Office for where the Officers went about their jobs. The Fort was surrounded by barbed wire and several tank traps to keep out unwanted guest. And for now, they were doing their job.

Cutter narrowed his eyes, "Tell Battlegroup SHIELD to double-time it and have our ship do the same. We got Marines who need our help."

* * *

><p><em><strong>05.24.2105 - 9:43 a.m SAT (Standard Alliance Time)<br>**__**Sol System  
><strong>__**London, UK, Earth  
><strong>__**Alliance Parliament**_

"Oh thank god." A Parliament Politician, from Western Europe, spoke up, her face showered with relief, "This nightmare battle has ended."

"No, I don't think so."

"What? You saw yourself, the enemy fleet is vanquished. We've won." A Politician from Southeastern Asia replied.

Admiral Preston J. Cole turned and faced the Politicians, "What we've won was the Space Battle and the opening engagement in the Terra Nova Campaign. Now, the ground war begins." A few seconds after this statement, he scrunched his face up before returning it to normal and speaking up again, "No, the ground war had already begun. It's now just going to get worse."

He turned to President Carlos Santiago, "And after this nightmare of a Naval Battle, the Alliance Navy is going to need some seasoned Naval Instructors to help guide the future generations."

The President beamed up at this, surprised and glad at this change of heart. "So, this means you'll be a Naval Instructor?"

Cole nodded, "Yes, Mr. President. I'll be a Naval Instructor for the Systems Alliance. But I'm not returning to the Military."

President Santiago chuckled softly, "Don't worry, Admiral. I know when not to press my luck."

"I will say this, though." He paused, glancing back at the screen of the television before looking back at the President, "If we encounter an Alien race within my lifetime, I will return to the Navy to defend Earth and her Colonies. I won't stand for us to get into another Great War with us being on the losing end. Not if I can help it." The look on the War Hero's face showed this wasn't just a statement, this was a promise. He didn't seem like the type of man who would go back on his word. Santiago smiled a little.

The President extended his hand and spoke, "I'm glad to hear that, Admiral. Welcome to the Systems Alliance."

Admiral Cole took the man's hand and shook it, allowing himself the faintest of smiles. "Thank you, Mr. President."

* * *

><p><em><strong>05.24.2105 - 11:07 a.m Local Time<br>Fort Gilgamesh  
>Southern Perimeter<strong>_

"Keep your fucking heads down! They got snipers!" Shouted the Sergeant as he fired away with his FN-82 SCAR assault rifle. The squad's entrenched position would protect them from rifle fire, but what they needed was armor support. Sergeant Gustavo Dias was in charge of a 32 man platoon that once numbered 52 men. The remnants of his platoon, and the Regiment, fell back to Fort Gilgamesh, covering the retreat of several other severely devastated Regiments. The only other Regiment that could help them that he knew of was the 85th Armored Combat Regiment.

And they needed help right now.

"Private, where the hell's our Reinforcements?" He fired once more, killing a couple rebels with the burst from his rifle.

"The 85th's not coming, Sergeant."

"Why the hell not?! We need their Armor to hold the Fort."

"The 85th's saying that it's too dangerous to get the Armor into the Fort."

"It's a fucking warzone. Being dangerous tends to happen!"

"I'm sorry, Sergeant. But they said we're on our own for now."

"Goddammit!" Dias roared as he ducked in cover from a burst of automatic fire.

* * *

><p>The Rebels had the Regiment in a Pincer Maneuver, albeit a very disorganized one but a pincer nonetheless. While most of the Rebels were equipped with whatever they got their hands on, some of the Rebels were carrying an AK-147, the last design of the AK series rifles built on the 100th Anniversary of the weapon's conception. The difference was that the 147 fired 7.62x51mm instead of 7.62x39mm, and had alot more range and stopping power compare to its ancestor. They fire 30 or 40 round magazines or can be equipped with a 100 round box magazine.<p>

The Marines were equipped with the FN-82 SCAR, Specialized Combat Assault Rifle, the standard issue rifle of the Systems Alliance Marine Corps. Developed in 2082 as part of the Alliance's attempt to standardized the Military, the SCAR wouldn't be fully intergrated into the Alliance Military until 2090, having massive popularity with the Marine Corp for its ruggedness and reliability. Equipped with a 40 round magazine of 7.62x51mm, the SCAR had stopping power and range over its competitors.

* * *

><p>Dias fired another burst from his SCAR, not hitting anyone but causing several Rebels to duck in cover from the automatic fire. The 28 year old Brazilian cursed under his breath, mainly cursing the 85th ACR for leaving them high and dry. They could hold the Fort, that he was certain. The Rebel's assault was largely disorganized, but the sheer numbers would eventually eat up their ammunition. And he wasn't looking forward to any hand to hand combat.<p>

Two more Marines were killed as a group of 5 Rebels pushed up, trying to get close so they could lob in some grenades. They were put down by the collective fire of a dozen Marines.

"Sergeant, I got eyes on an enemy sniper." Corporal Fredrick Williams spoke up, looking down the battlefield with the scope of a M392 DMR. He was one of the few Marines in the 294th that had gotten his hands on the new weapon. In his opinion, the M392 was a reliable rifle, perfect for mid-long range combat with incredible accuracy and killing power. The 19 year old American steadied his breathing before pulling the trigger. The DMR kicked as the round went out of the barrel, traveling 500 meters before connecting with the Rebels head, dropping him instantly.

"He's down."

"Good shot, Williams."

Dias turned back to the Marines, "Listen up. We're gonna hold here with the rest of the Company while the medics evac the wounded to the hospital. We'll lay do-"

His voice trailed off as he saw several fiery lights in the sky, coming straight down into the Fort itself. At first, Dias thought with horror that the Rebels were firing artillery at the base, but they were too high up to be artillery shells. Then he began to worry they were missiles from the orbiting Rebel ships. But as they got closer, he realized that they were black pods, descending from the heavens. There must have been some 200 pods in total.

"What the hell is that?"

The first of the pods slammed into the dirt, followed by dozens of others every second. Everyone of the drop pods landed on the ground, before the pods bursts open and unloaded each of their deadly cargo.

The ODST had joined the fight.

* * *

><p>Staff Sergeant James Hudson jumped out of his drop pod, wielding his MA5C Assault Rifle in his hands, with a M7S as backup, and open fire on the Rebel forces. The other ODST left their pods and joined in on the fight. Hudson moved towards a group of Alliance Marines and slid into a kneeling position in the cover.<p>

"Who's in charge?"

"I am." Sergeant Dias stepped up, or rather crouched up. "Sergeant Dias, Able Company, 11th Marine Battalion, 294th Regiment. Who the hell are you?"

"Staff Sergeant Hudson, Talon Company, 35th ODST Battalion."

"ODST?" A Marine spoke up.

"Orbital Drop Shock Troopers."

One of the Marines noticed the Marines Logo on Hudson's shoulder. "You're Alliance Marines?"

"Yea, we're Marines, like you. Just better training and gear." He looked pass Sergeant Dias and spoke into his headset, "7th Squad, regroup on my position."

* * *

><p>11 more ODST Marines moved towards the Staff Sergeant's location, firing downrange at the Rebel forces trying to take them down. Several Rebels went down as they engaged the UNSC's elite. The screech of a jet fighter's engines were heard overhead, before the earth shook with several thunderous booms. Dust clouds were kicked up everywhere as a pair of GA-TL1 Longsword Interceptors flew over the base, having dropped a multitude of bombs and missiles over Rebel locations. Earth, metal, and body parts were sent raining down on the heads of the Rebels and the Marines.<p>

The damage was done, and it was enough to route the majority of the Rebel forces and send them retreating. The Alliance Marines saw this and starting cheering and shooting at the retreating forms of the Rebels.

"Whoa.."

"Holy shit!"

"Hell yeah!"

"That's right, fuckers. Run and hide!"

"Oorah! That's what I'm talking about."

These were meerly a few of the cheers and chants that came from the Marines as they pushed up and secured the Fort's perimeter. Corporal Williams looked up and saw a Fleet of Pelicans coming down with various equipment in the back of the Dropships, such as tanks or M12 Warthogs, or were equipped with a Troop Deployment Pod. While many pilots in the Alliance liked the older C-181 Sparrow, many more pilots had fallen in love with the D77-TC Pelican. The Pelican had much better armor, firepower, and while it wasn't as agile or fast as the Sparrow, it was still decent enough in those fields.

Hudson looked back and spoke to the Marines of Able Company. "Listen up, Marines. The Calvary has arrived, but your mission isn't over just yet. We're here for one reason and one reason only. We're gonna retake Terra Nova from the Rebels and grind them into the fucking ground. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Sergeant." Came the unified voice. Hudson wasn't convinced, though, and decided to give a little encouragement. "Where's that fucking Oorah, Marines?!"

"Oorah."

"I can't hear shit from you! Oorah?!"

"OORAH!"

Now they were motivated, with a grinning Sergeant Dias in the back watching. Williams now had a look of determination on his face. Hell, maybe they would survive this shitstorm now. He watched as a Fleet of Pelicans came down and brought in reinforcements and supplies. It was at this moment that Sergeant Dias realized that this was the start.

The Liberation of Terra Nova had begun.

* * *

><p><em><strong>06.05.2105<br>Vallhallan Threshold  
><strong>__**Raheel-Leyya System  
><strong>__**Migrant Fleet  
><strong>__**Quarian Liveship 'Rayya'**_

The Admiralty Board was nervous and completely on edge today. Why? Because today, they were having the pleasure of meeting a completely new and completely unknown Alien Race that, according to Captain Kelan'Hamr vas Hirule, had weapons and technology that were leaps and bounds ahead of anything even the Citadel Council had and devastated a Batarian Heavy Fleet of nearly 50 ships with a fleet of just 15. Granted, these ships were massive, but they were still skeptical about the sizes reported in the statement.

And they would be hear any minute now. Both the Patrol and Heavy Fleets were in key defensive positions all around the Civilian Fleet. If they lost just one of the three Liveships, millions of Quarians would starve. So of course, everyone was on edge.

"Admirals, our sensors are picking strange energy readings. They're larger than anything we've ever recorded." A young Officer spoke to the Board.

Admiral Delun'Rallen spoke, _"Then that must be them. Have all the Military Ships be ready and on standby."_

They waited as they watched the projection of the Fleets position in comparison to the space around them. Suddenly, 14 Portals appeared out of nowhere roughly 1000 km away from the Migrant Fleet. A massive 6 km Warship spearheaded the Battlegroup of 14 ships. Every Quarian in the Migrant Fleet collectively dropped their jaws at the sight of such colossal ships.

The Covenant Assault Carrier 'Walk of Divinity' exited Slipspace with its Battlegroup of 2 Heavy Cruisers, 4 Heavy Destroyers, and 7 Battlecruisers.

How the hell could such massive ships exist? And where the hell did they come from? The amount of Element Zero that would be needed to fuel those monsters would be insanely large. Then Delun remembered. The Captain had stated that these Aliens don't use Element Zero or the Mass Relays. So what in the hell did they use?

_"A-Admirals. We're being h-hailed by the Alien Fleet."_

The Admiralty Board looked at one another, nervous. But, they all nodded. Delun'Rallen finally spoke up, _"Patch them through."_

* * *

><p>There was silence at first, before the radio came to life, <em>'Greetings Quarians. My name is Hurok Wattinree, Fleetmaster of the Covenant First Fleet of Divine Fury. I am... requesting permission to dock a dropship with your vessel to commence in diplomacy with your leadership.'<em>

_"This is Admiral Delun'Rallen vas Olrynier, Head of the Admiralty Board. You have permission to board. You may bring a personal escort for the Diplomats."_

_'Understood, Admiral. We will be there in 30 minutes.'_

* * *

><p><em><strong>Walk of Divinty-Hangar<strong>_

Fleetmaster Hurok Wattinree walked down into the vehicle bay of the hangar. The hangar had a vast array of space fighters and dropships. 6 Type-26 Banshee, the Exoatmospheric variant of the infamous Type-26 Banshee, were being deployed ahead of the dropship that was being prepped for launch, a Type-44 Phantom.

A relatively new design, the Type-44 was designed to replace the old Type-25 Spirit, which has been in service for over 100 years. More heavily armed and armored than its predecessor, with one Type-44 DEW/M and two Type-52 Plasma Cannons, the Phantom was built with Ground Support in mind. It was also equipped with a extendable boarding umbilical that was use for boarding and docking with ships.

Next to the dropship were a group of 14 warriors. 4 Sangheili, 5 Kig-yar, and 5 Unggoy. Hurok had decided against bringing along the Mgalekgolo, remembering being told about how small the Quarian ship's corridors and hallways were. He didn't think the Quarians would appreciate it much if he brought aboard 12 foot monsters that went about making massive dents in their hulls.

Normally, the Covenant would have just intimidated and bullied a new species into joining the Covenant, but their current situation meant that they needed to be smart about how they approached a new species. While the situation with the Batarians was accidental, it didn't change the fact that the four-eyes chose to open fire instead of trying to communicate.

The Quarians, however, were a different case. From what he had been told, they were fantastic Engineers, even better than the Yanme'e and only surpassed by the Huragok in ingenuity. They could be very useful to the Covenant, but they couldn't just bully them into submission. Hurok simply didn't have the numbers for that and fighting the Batarians at the same time. Plus, unlike the Batarians or the Citadel Council, he couldn't replace his ships. Not yet.

That was where the Quarians came in. That, and he had already found a Planet where they could rebuild the Covenant and the Quarian people.

* * *

><p><em>"Fleetmaster, we are ready to depart when you are." <em>One of the Sangheili spoke, a Major clan in Maroon Armor as were the other two.

_"Then let us depart. And remember, we're to show restraint while on board. We cannot afford to start another war."_

He stepped into the Phantom and spoke to the pilot, _"Take off."_

The group stepped onto the Phantom. The dropship's engines roared to life as it lifted off the ground. Ahead of it, a flight of six Type-27 Banshees, the Exoatmospheric version of the infamous fighter, flew out and formed two flights of three around the Phantom as they exited the hangar. The sortie of seven aircraft exited the hangar and flew off towards the Quarian Migrant Fleet.

* * *

><p><em><strong>06.05.2105<br>Omega Nebula  
><strong>__**Fathar System  
><strong>__**Lorek  
>22nd Turian Patrol Fleet<strong>_

Lorek was the 1st Planet in the Fathar System, in the Omega Nebula. Founded by the Asari back in 1764, it was annexed by the Batarian Hegemony in 1913, which cause a minor galactic incident. Tidally locked to the star Fathar, with a sunward facing 'hot' pole and a shadowed 'cold' pole, and has a 300 mile stretch of Terminator Zone that is inhabitable, with numerous islands under constant thunderstorms. With some 4,500,000 inhabitants living on it, Lorek was a strategically world to the Hegemony, with many mining and industrial complexes that fueled the Hegemony's economy.

This was why the Batarians had station the 3rd Heavy Fleet to defend the Planet, along with some 550,000 soldiers on the ground. With 45 Frigates, 42 Cruisers, and 3 Dreadnoughts, it was one of the most powerful Fleets in the Hegemony.

And this was why one of the Turians' 3 Support Fleets were being stationed over the Planet to bolster its defenses.

The 22nd Patrol Fleet had a long history of successful pirate hunting in the edges of the Terminus System that bordered Citadel Space. 14 ships, 6 Cruisers and 8 Frigates, made up the Fleet normally, but the recent reports about the Covenant's onslaught against the Batarians had the Hierarchy concerned, so they chose to bolster the Support Fleets sent to the Hegemony. The 22nd now compromised of 1 Dreadnought, 12 Cruisers, and 9 Frigates. 22 ships in total. The Dreadnoughts, normally held in reserve for a major assault, was viewed as a necessity if the Turians were to get into conflict with the Covenant.

The Dreadnought stationed with the 22nd was an Opoldus-Class called the 'Indomitable'.

Opoldus-Class Dreadnought were an older design, roughly 20 years old, but were a tried and tested design. At roughly 1.4 km in length, they were among the largest warships the Turians had ever produced, with the standard grey coloring and red painted on the tips. Equipped with two Mass Accelerator Cannons that ran the length of the ship's 'spine' and numerous mass drivers on its flanks, they were more than a match for any warship unfortunate enough to fight them. They were also the most heavily armored warships ever constructed, with an unheard of 1.2 meters of armor, which would have been seen as absurd in the past.

The Admiral in charge of the 22nd was hoping its armor and firepower would be enough to protect them.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Turian Dreadnought 'Indomitable'-Bridge<strong>_

Admiral Joran Qui'in spoke to the Batarian Admiral with annoyance, _"Admiral Balken, I'm merely suggesting that it would be a good idea to at least have some evactuation plans in order should the Covenant arrive."_

The Batarian sneered, _"And I am telling you that isn't nessecary. If those Covenant Bastards step one foot in this system and dare pick a fight with my fleet, they're going to regret it. They won't be able to land a single dropship onto Lorek."_

As much as the Turian would love to believe in the Council Races' superiority, he knew that wasn't the case here. Time and again on over half a dozen engagements, the Covenant had shown their technological superiority over the Council Races' ships, wiping out fleets that normally outnumbered their own by margins of up to 4 to 1.

And if Qui'in remembered correctly, they had yet to kill a single Covenant warship. Something that made the Turian Admiral nervous.

_"Admiral, with all due respect, you and I both know that isn't true."_

_"Are you questioning the Hegemony's capabilities?"_

_"No. I'm saying that the Covenant have a massive advantage over us in space in terms of Armor and Firepower. It often takes 10 or 12 of our own Cruisers just to injure one of their smaller ships."_

While the Council Races had yet to kill a Covenant Warship, that didn't mean they hadn't broken through the shielding of one before. The Citadel Races had on numerous occasions damaged a Covenant Warship, but they were simply too heavily armored for even Dreadnoughts to do any critical or crippling damage, and the Covenant were quick to destroy any opposition before it turned into a serious threat.

_"Bah! The largest numbers we've seen were 25 ships in one Fleet. We would outnumber them considerably here. My line of thought is telling me that they don't have a large number of Warships, just very large and very strong ships. Very large ships that take a long time to build."_

For once, Admiral Qui'in was in agreeance with the Batarian. It made sense. A small but very powerful Navy that was capable of performing a multitude of roles. Perhaps if they could knock out one of those massive 6 km Warships, it might be a massive blow to their Military Capacity.

_"For once, we're in agreeance, but let's not overthink ourselves befo-"_

_"Admiral, we're picking up some massive readings on the scanners." _A Turian Officer shouted out.

Both Qui'in's and Balken's blood ran cold, fearing what it could be. On one hand, it could be either the 61st Patrol Fleet coming through the system, they were expected any day now, or even a Batarian Fleet that was sent to bolster their defense. Qui'in knew how much the Hegemony valued Lorek.

On the other hand...

* * *

><p>As if to answer the question on everyone's mind, 40 white portals appeared a little under a quarter of a million kilometers from their positions. Qui'in and Balken knew immediately what they were, and what was coming through them.<p>

The Covenant were here, and they were about to assault Lorek.

20 Battlcruisers, 10 Heavy Destroyers, 8 Heavy Cruisers, and 2 Assault Carriers exited Slipspace in almost perfect formation. This was the largest Covenant Fleet recorded so far by the Citadel Races. This was also the first time Admiral Qui'in and the 22nd had seen a Covenant Warship of any kind. They had a design that reminded him of some sea creatures that inhabit Palaven's oceans. But these beauties were dangerous and he knew it.

The Batarian Fleet was already setting up for the upcoming battle. It was time for the Turians to get into action, too.

_"All ships, staggered formation. Do NOT bunch up. Warm up main guns and prepare to fire."_

Admiral Qui'in turned to the Communications Officer, _"Okay, diplomacy first. Try to hail one of the Carriers, see if we can't at least get them talking."_

The Officer typed in a few commands into the console before looking back, _"We're transmitting on an open channel. Ready to go, Sir."_

The Admiral paused for a second, before clearing his throat and speaking.

* * *

><p><em>"Attention Covenant Fleet, this is Admiral Joran Qui'in, Commanding Officer of the 22nd Patrol Fleet of the Turian Hierarchy. We are here to assist the Batarian Hegemony that you are unprovokingly waging war with. We are asking, however, that instead of resorting to conflict, we can hopefully talk and negotiate a ceasefire between our governments. However, if you open fire, we will have no choice but to fire as well. Do you copy, over."<em>

Silence filled the air for what felt like forever, neither side speaking. Admiral Balken wasn't a diplomat, he was a soldier. He wanted to obliterate these fiends that dare attack the Hegemony, but he wasn't going to get in an arguement with the Turian just yet. He was honestly a little curious as to weather or not the Covenant would respond. They never did whenever a Batarian ship had tried to communicate.

Finally, a deep voice replied back.

_"Do not interfere, Turians. This isn't your fight. Get involved and you will be destroyed. Our war is with the four-eyed fiends, not you."_

_"And who am I speaking to?"_

_"It does not matter. Either leave the system or face destruction. The Batarians are doomed either way. Their arrogance will see to that."_

_"I can't do that, as I already told yo-"_

_"AND JUST WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?! HOW DARE YOU ATTACK US WITHOUT PROVOCATION!"_

Annnd of course, the Batarian lost his temper. Damn him. Admiral Balken was obviously angered that the Covenant Commander was just blatantly ignoring him and already considering him dead before any shots had been fired. Admiral Qui'in was a little unnerved by this blatant disregard for another life.

The deep voice replied, _"What we are... is your Destruction. Your Judgment. Your Punishment for your arrogance. And as for your claims of unprovoked, that is entirely false. You open fire on us in our first encounter. Your Commander's stupidity brought this upon your people. Your people's undeserved claim of superiority above all others brought this upon you. You have angered and offended the Gods, and we as their instruments must silence you and cleanse your filth from any and all systems we come across."_

Qui'in wasn't surprised when the Covenant stated that the Batarians fired first. It sounded like something they would do. But that wasn't important at the moment.

_"Filth? FILTH?! I'll show you filth, you little shit!"_

The Batarian Admiral was thinking irrationally. This could get ugly quickly and Qui'in needed to act now. The lives of 4,500,000 people were depending on it.

_"Admiral Balken, calm down. We don't have to resort to violence. We could stop all the fighting, all the killing right now."_

_"It's no use, Turian. The Batarian has made up his mind."_

_"YOU'RE GODDAMNED RIGHT I'VE MADE UP MY MIND! You. Are. Dead!"_

_"Admiral, please. The lives of 4,500,000 people are depending on us. If we can end this without resorting to violence, then we should."_

_"To hell with that! I want to see this bastard's Fleet in pieces. I hope you made peace with your 'gods', because you're about to go meet them."_

The Batarian Admiral cut the connection. Admiral Qui'in spoke into the comms, _"Admiral Balken. Admiral! Spirits dammit."_

He was about to speak to his own Fleet, when the Covenant Leader spoke again.

_"Turian, the battle is at hand. If you wish to avoid the deaths of your soldiers, then do not interfere."_

_"Is there any way of convincing you to consider diplomacy over war?"_

_"We are not at war, therefore there is no need for diplomacy with a race we're not at war with."_

_"That's where your wrong. By declaring war with the Batarians, you've effectively declared war on the rest of the Citadel Races. That's the whole reason we're here at Lorek. If you engage in combat with the Hegemony, then I will have no choice but join them in combat."_

_"Then I hope your warriors will perform better than the Batarians have. Have bravery, Turian, and prepare for a most glorious and honorable battle."_

* * *

><p>The line went dead after that statement. Admiral Qui'in sighed. While they did outnumber the Covenant by some 60 ships, he would of rather they outnumber them by twice that number. He knew this fight was going to be bloody and horrific. But, still, as a Turian, he was expected to carry out his duty. He spoke up once more.<p>

_"Attention, 22nd Patrol Fleet. This is Admiral Qui'in. The Covenant are about to commence their attack on Lorek. While most of us have no love for the Hegemony, we can't allow 4,500,000 million people to perish at the hands of the Covenant. We wouldn't allow it if this was a Turian world. As Turians, you will perform your duty and engage the enemy. I know each and every one of you will give the Covenant every bit of hell possible, so let us go out there and show these newcomers who's the strongest military in the galaxy. Let us show them a fury that they will never forget! Turians, prepare for combat!"_

The speech did rouse up the Fleet's morale, evident in his own crews faces. Qui'in turned to navigations, _"What are the Batarians doing?"_

_"Sir, the 3rd Heavy Fleet is dividing up into 3 major battlegroups. Two battlegroups of Frigates with 6 Cruisers in each, the final battlegroup is made up of 30 Cruisers and the 3 Dreadnoughts. They're in a loose staggered formation, with considerable spacing between each of the ships and battlegroups."_

Good, at least they weren't making themselves bigger targets. Even if he despised the man, Qui'in had to admit that Admiral Balken was one of the few Batarian Admirals who was actually a decent leader. He was also one of the few Batarians that had rose to the rank of Admiral through military service and not political ties.

But one decent commander didn't mean that they were going to win.

_"Sir, the Covenant's on the move. They're splitting as well. Two battlegroups. 10 Battlecruisers, 5 Destroyers, 4 Heavy Cruisers, and 1 Carrier each. Looks like they know what Balken's doing."_

_"Then we better get in there and back him up. 22nd Fleet, move out and prepare to fire main cannons when the Covenant's in range."_

The Turian and Batarian Fleets positioned themselves as they prepared for the Covenant onslaught. Fighters are launched, ready to take on any fighters the Covenant unleash.

_"Sit, all units are ready to go, we're- Sir, energy spikes coming from the Covenant ships. Their firing their Plasma Torpedoes. Count's at nearly 60. Fighters are numbering 500 and rising."_

_"Torpedoes from 120,000 km?! Ridiculous, they'll never hit anything from that range."_

The Covenant Plasma Torpedoes streamed towards their targets through space. The Batarian Frigates held firm while the Cruisers and Dreadnoughts did immediate evasive maneuvers. Qui'in noticed that about a half dozen of the Torpedoes were coming towards his Fleet. _"Frigates shoot them down, Cruisers and Indomitable, target the closest Covenant ship and prepare to fire."_

* * *

><p>The Frigates moved out ahead of the Cruisers and Dreadnought and attempted to shoot down the incoming Torpedoes. GUARDIAN lasers came to life and struck the Torpedoes, but did nothing to stop or slow down the incoming projectiles. The Torpedoes closed in and slammed into 6 Frigates, setting each of them alight and ablaze. The Frigates' kinetic barriers didn't even stop the projectiles for a second.<p>

Admiral Qui'in could only watch as the Frigates were destroyed. The damn things were guided. By the Spirits, how the hell could they guide Plasma? And the Batarians didn't fair any better. Their Frigates took the brunt of the Torpedoes, crippling and destroying the majority of them. The Cruisers and Dreadnoughts faired better, as the Cruisers had only lost 3 and the Dreadnoughts didn't lose any. The Frigates, however, were utterly destroyed. Only 8 Frigates were left at the end of the barrage.

And now the Batarians returned in kind.

The Batarian Cruisers and Dreadnoughts open fire with their Mass Accelerators, 42 slugs screaming towards the closest Covenant battlegroup. Followed by 2 more volleys in less than 5 seconds. 10 Covenant ships were struck by the barrage repeatedly. At first, Admiral Qui'in didn't understand what the Batarian Admiral was doing, but quickly put the pieces together. Balken was targeting certain ships and giving to individual wolf packs to target and overwhelm them with firepower in hopes of breaking the shields before they get too close to the 3rd Fleet.

It was a good plan. They had a better chance of taking down the massive warships if they concentrated their fire. _"22nd, target the closest Covenant ship."_

The 22nd Patrol Fleet turned their bows towards the closest Covenant ship, a Heavy Destroyer. The Admiral looked at the profile of the Destroyer, taking in its predatory design. Now, he was going to find out just how powerful this predator is.

_"All ships, open fire."_

14 slugs came screaming out towards the Destroyer. A few seconds later, the rounds slammed into the shields of the Covenant ship, silver screens flaring up around the ship as the shields took damage. The shields held, however. And now the Turians had the Covenant's attention.

_"Sir, 4 Covenant Ships are breaking off from the battlegroup. 3 Battlecruisers and 1 Destroyer, approaching on an intercept course."_

_"Target them, assign one ship each to 3 Cruisers and one Frigate, have our ship target the Destroyer. All ships, fire at will."_

The 22nd Patrol Fleet's ships shifted their positions and open fire on the incoming ships. The Covenant ships' shields flared as they were struck by the rounds, but they continued to close in on the Turian Fleet. The Covenant returned fire by having the Battlecruisers firing their Plasma Turrets and Pulse Lasers and the Destroyer... wait what was the Destroyer doing?

The Destroyer arched upward, revealing its underside to the fleet. The cruisers fired upon it and actually broke the shields of the Destroyer, but the bottom of the Destroyer's bow was glowing. The front of the bow of the Battlecruisers were now glowing as well. What the hell were th-

Four silver lances came out of the Covenant ships and struck four Turian ships. The Turians had come face to face with the infamous Covenant Energy Projector.

The first unfortunate ship was a Frigate. It was struck in the bow and speared by the energy weapon, gutting the inside of the ship and setting it alight. A cruiser was bisected and split in half. Another Cruiser was struck in the engines and went alight before exploding. The last Cruiser struck was struck near the bridge and simply floated off, dead in the water.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Turian Dreadnought 'Indomitable'-Bridge<em>**

_"By the Spirits, what the hell was that?!" _Admiral Qui'in shouted, losing his nerve that had been on a never-ending edge. Realizing what he had done, though, he quickly regained his composure and spoke out, _"Keep firing. Have the Fleet split up and engage at will." _

The 'Indomitable' fired away with its two Mass Accelerators and its broadside mass drivers at the Covenant Destroyer, the rounds doing nothing more than denting the Armor of the massive ship. Its Armor was just simply too thick to be pierce by the mass accelerated rounds.

Four more Turian Cruisers were destroyed by the Covenant Battlecruisers, but their armor apparently wasn't as thick as the Destroyer, as there was visible damage on the hull of the warships. Weather the interior had received damage, Qui'in didn't know. It didn't change the fact that the Turian Fleet was losing ships at an alarming rate. And right now, he had a Destroyer bearing down on him, its super weapon glowing fiercely again. At such a close range, they would never dodge it. Not with a Dreadnought.

Qui'in did the only thing he could think of.

_"Weapons, target that energy weapon their charging up. If we're going down, we're going to try and at least take that bastard with us."_

The 'Indomitable' turned and aligned its Mass Accelerators with the Destroyer's Energy Projector. The Covenant Warship continued to charge up its weapon, almost ready to fire. Just as it seemed like it was about to fire, Admiral Qui'in gave the order.

_"Fire!"_

* * *

><p>Two Mass Accelerator rounds thundered out towards the Destroyer and struck the Energy Projector. The result wasn't what the Turian Admiral was expecting.<p>

The moment the slugs slammed into the Energy Projector, the ball of energy ignited and explosion tore through the bow of the Destroyer. The interior was set alight as multiple explosions rocked the inside of the ship. Miniature explosions dotted the hull. The Destroyer turned onto its side and floated past the 'Indomitable'.

The Destroyer was out of action.

* * *

><p>The Turians cheered as they watched the Destroyer burn and float aimlessly past them. Admiral Qui'in sighed a breath of relief. The Turians had just proven something of great importance. They had proven that the Covenant wasn't as invincible as some believed. That Covenant Warships could be taken down. Granted, it wasn't destroyed, but the Covenant Destroyer was effectively out of the fight.<p>

_"Alright, settle down. Back to your stations. We've still got-"_

The Dreadnought shuttered and shook violently, before the power went out. _"Sir, we've been hit! Plasma Torpedo to the stern, knocked out our engines."_

_"Spirits, how bad is it?"_

_"The armor more or less saved the engines from igniting, but it didn't stop the Plasma Torpedo from taking our engines off line." _

_"Sir, we have only three Cruisers left reporting in, and they're all reporting that they're being boarded."_

Spirits Dammit. That wasn't good. And if the message wasn't convincing enough, Admiral Qui'in saw a Covenant Battlecruiser go past the front of the Dreadnought through the Bridge's viewport. He could see several fighters being launched from the Warships, as well as what he assumed were boarding craft.

_"All Turians, to arms. We're about to be boarded."_

He pulled the heavy pistol from his waist and made sure it was ready for use. Several sudden collisions rocked and shook the ship violently. The sounds of battle followed a few moments after outside the bulkhead. Screams and shouts were heard along with the gunfire as Turians clashed with the Covenant intruders. The Admiral called out, _"Seal that bulkhead, they'll try and gain access to the Bridge as soon as they can."_

The bulkhead was seal and locked. It would keep the Covenant from accessing the Bridge, but it also condemned any Turian soldiers trying to reach their location. On the Omni-tool's comms, the crew could here the sounds of fighting coming from the other ships being boarded. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to know how the Batarians were fairing.

The bulkhead suddenly had a bright burning mark in the center. Spirits, they were cutting through the bulkhead. Persistent Bastards.

_"Steady, men. No matter what comes through that door, you face it head on as Turians."_

A chorus of "Yes, sir." rang out on the Bridge. Turian society required the males to serve when they turn 15, which means that every Turian males have some level of combat capability, especially if they chose to be career soldiers. And one thing above all other made the Turian Military the best in the Galaxy.

Turians don't retreat. And none of them were going to here.

* * *

><p>The bulkhead exploded, sending bits of the door all across the room. Plasma bolts soon followed afterwards, killing a couple Turians. Sangheili soldiers stormed through within seconds of the bulkhead being breached, firing away at the entrenched Turians. The Turians returned fire with various Mass Effect-powered weapons, only for the projectiles to be stopped by the personal Energy Shields of the Sangheili.<p>

Unggoy and Kig-yar came in behind the Sangheili. They were easier to take down than the Sangheili as they had no shields. Qui'in dropped two Unggoy in rapid succession from his heavy pistol, before turning it onto a Kig-yar. The Kig-yar's shield gauntlet took the brunt of the bullet barrage, but held out nonetheless.

_"Get some grenades out!" _Admiral Qui'in shouted, and a couple Turian Marines chucked out a couple grenades at the Covenant soldiers. Twin explosions rocked the Bridge, killing several Covenant soldiers. The Covenant returned in kind and killed several more Turian in a hail of Plasma bolts.

But the Turians were losing, slowly but surely. The Covenant could replace their soldiers, the Bridge crew could not. They were now down to just 6 soldiers. An explosion rocked the Turians' position, sending Admiral Qui'in crashing to the ground. His whole body ached and burned. He couldn't feel his left leg move, but he knew it was still there when he reached down and touched it. He lifts his head up to see one of his Turian soldiers going down in a hail of gunfire, before a large foot blocks his view.

He looks up to see a large Sangheili warrior, donned in bright white armor, looming above him, mandibles flaring. He wielded a Plasma Sword in his hand and was about to lunge down and finish him off. This was the end. This was how he was going to die.

_"Stop!"_

The Sangheili Ultra stopped in his tracks, the sword just inches from piercing Admiral Qui'in's back. They both looked and saw a Sangheili Zealot, donned in maroon armor, stepped up and spoke, _"The Shipmaster has decreed that these Turians be taken prisoner, along with any others captured."_

The Ultra grunted, and grabbed the Admiral by the back of the neck, dragging him along. It was at this moment that Qui'in realized that there were 3 other survivors of the bridge crew, minus himself, out of an original crew of 24. He didn't want to think how many others survived.

It didn't matter at this point. For Admiral Qui'in, this fight was over.

* * *

><p>The Batarian had lost this fight. The Covenant had overrun their Fleet and there were simply too few of their ships left to keep resisting. While the 3rd Heavy Fleet had knocked 4 Covenant ships out of the fight, and damaged some 10 others to various degrees, it didn't change the fact that Balken was down to 5 Cruisers and 1 Dreadnought. And he had just learned of the Turian Fleet's demise.<p>

Admiral Balken knew the battle was over, and he had lost. Now, he needed to get what was left of his Fleet out of there now.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Batarian Dreadnought 'Unwavering Loyalty'-Bridge<em>**

_"All ships, commence emergency jump towards the Relay. I repeat. All ships, disengage and retreat." _The surviving Batarian ships disengaged and moved to escape the coming wrath of the Covenant Warships. What the hell were those silver lances of energy? They tore his ships apart like they were damn paper. He had no choice but to retreat to save what was left of his Fleet.

_Retreat._ A word not familiar to the Batarian people. He hated the fact that he was leaving 5 million people behind on Lorek, but these ships would be needed in the future. And the ships would be of no use fighting an already lost battle. The colony had only one hope now, and that was the 550,000 Batarian Soldiers left to defend the cities. Their only chance was to hold out until the Council Races could muster up an Invasion Fleet and counterattack.

He knew, however, that the chances of that happening were slim.

Damn the Council! He already knew from the start what they were doing when he learned of how much support they were sending. They were hoping this would weaken the Hegemony enough that an overthrowing of the Government would happen, and Slavery would finally be ended in Batarian space.

In truth, he had no love for the Slavery laws. Balken's own nephew, who he thought of as a son, was a slave for a political family he was associated with. The only reason he wasn't treated badly or was even seen by his family was because of Balken's close ties to the family. But, they had been a part of Batarian heritage for as long as Batarian Civilization had existed. But now, it may very well lead to the Batarian people's extinction.

Something Admiral Balken couldn't allow.

He should have used diplomacy instead of letting his anger get the better of him. Now, 5 million people may have been condemned to death by his actions. He knew from experience that when the Covenant waged a ground war, they were full tenacity and no mercy. Their ground forces had more advance tech than even the Turians.

But this... This would be the start of something. The Hegemony needed to change. Needed to adapt if it was going to survive. New Policies would to be installed, and old ones repealed. If the Batarian race was going to survive, a massive change in the very society needed to happen. And by the Pillars of Strength, he would see this vision become a reality. But first, they needed to accomplished something important first.

Peace with the Covenant.

* * *

><p>In the decades after what would become known as the Fall of Lorek, the battle would be remembered as one of the largest and most colossal naval defeats in centuries, and one of the bloodiest battles in history since the Krogan Rebellion. It would be remembered as the moment the Batarians lost their power and hold over the Terminus Systems, and when the Hegemony was effectively brought to its knees. In another Galaxy, it might have been compared to another colossal battle waged with the Covenant. A planet that would be remembered for its valiant stand against the vast Covenant Fleet sent against it before falling to the hordes of Covenant Soldiers and Orbital Glassings.<p>

A planet called Reach.

* * *

><p><em><strong>06.05.2105<br>Vallhallan Threshold  
><strong>__**Raheel-Leyya System  
><strong>__**Migrant Fleet  
><strong>__**Quarian Liveship 'Rayya'**_

_"... And so, here we are today." _Hurok Wattinree finished his tale of the Covenant and their journey. Admiral Delun'Rallen and the rest of the Admiralty Board stood in silence, taking in all the information that had been presented to them by the Covenant. Both of their entire histories had been told to one another over the past 4 hours, with an occasional break of course, but none the less. Every bit of it was incredible.

But now, if what the Fleetmaster said was true, apparently this Fleet of 140 ships were lost and apparently unable to contact the rest of their people. Why? Duren had no idea, but, he knew an opportunity when he saw one. He had already had a theory in his mind as to why the Covenant were here, and now, he was going to find out for certain.

_"An incredible history you have, Fleetmaster. But, I must ask the question that I know is in everyone's mind here. Why are you contacting us instead of the Council Races?"_

_"It's very simple, Admiral. We need you, just as much as you need us."_

The Admiral was taken aback by this, _"I'm sorry?"_

_"We need skilled Engineers to maintain and replace our mighty warships and weaponry, and you need firepower and numbers if you eve hope to drive the Geth from your Home. What I am here to offer... is an agreement that will benefit us both greatly."_

Keelah, he had a point. They didn't have a planet to fall back to. If the Quarians lose one ship, it's a lost for the entire race. The Quarians had maybe another century before they were wiped out if they were lucky. They needed to build up their numbers. _"... What... exactly do you have in mind?"_

_"It is very simple. We join forces and focus on rebuilding our people. We need to get our populations back up if we wish to stand a chance against our neighbors."_

Murmurs filled the room as to what the Sangheili was suggesting. It wasn't suggesting they join forces, but that the Quarians join the Covenant's little religious cult, at least, that's what Duren saw it as.

But at the same time, was it really such a bad idea? The benefits outweighed the consequences no matter how he looked at it. The Quarians would gain access to advance technology, centuries ahead of anything the Council had, and they would have a chance to rebuild and grow their people's numbers before attempting to retake Rannoch. He looked over at the other Admirals, who nodded, each knowing what the other was thinking.

Duren spoke once more, _"What would be the terms of this... Alliance?"_

_"Our union would mean we benefit on another. You're regarded as some of the best Engineers in the Galaxy, and we are the fiercest warriors. No-one would dare strike or oppose us for our might would be without equal."_

The idea of a union with the Covenant was starting to look better and better in the eyes of the Quarians around them. The Admirals knew that Covenant were more than likely relinquish the Board's rule over the Quarian people, but... perhaps it was better this way. Better than dying a slow death, anyway.

_"Before we make our decision, we must put this to a vote with the people. See where their hearts lie in the matter."_

_"Very well, but we should make haste. The longer we wait, the sooner our enemies may try and strike in our weakness."_

Keelah, today was going to be a long day.

* * *

><p><em><strong>6 hours later...<strong>_

The votes had all been casted, and the results were in. Out of 50,460 votes, 45,805 were for joining the Covenant, 4,655 were against. The decision was made. The Quarians would join forces with the Covenant. The Admiral's returned to the room with to the Covenant Fleetmaster and his soldiers.

_"Our people have voted, Fleetmaster Wattinree. We will join you and the Covenant."_

_"Excellent. I have already ordered our Agricultural ships to begin colonizing the planet several days ago." _

_"What planet are you colonizing?"_

Hurok pulled out a hand held projector, and showed the Admirals a hologram of a lush, green planet, with vast oceans. It was a beautiful planet, and it looks like an almost perfect garden world.

_"We do not have a name for it, but-"_

_"That's Virmire!"_

Hurok looked up, surprised. _"You know of this planet?"_

_"It was discovered about 20 years ago by a Council exploration team, but no attempts to colonize have been made because of the local instability of the Terminus Systems. We've even considered colonizing it a few times, but our... unique biology kept us from doing so, and it would simply take us too long to colonize the planet without assistance or maintaining a large Fleet to defend ourselves with."_

_"I see..." _Hurok was deep in thought, contemplating something, before he spoke up, _"How many ships do you have that could land on the planet's surface?"_

This request caught them off guard. _"Um... I'm honestly not sure. Tens of thousands, several thousand at least. Why?"_

_"They will more than likely be required to act as a temporary residence for your people, because of your weak immune systems. If we can cluster them together or even merge them together, we could create temporary residences on the planet until we build more permanent settlements." _

ConvertingFrigates and Civilian ships into houses? It wasn't crazy. The Quarians have been collectively living in ships for over two centuries. They could afford to live in them for a few more years. But colonizing Virmire. Sure, the Covenant had powerful ships, but did they have the combined numbers to defend Virmire from a determined attack? Duren wasn't sure, but he knew that if they continued living the way they were, then there wouldn't be a Quarian race to consider that question within another Century.

_"It's acceptable for now. But what about the local warlords and pirate bands that may try and threaten us?"_

_"They can try and they will be destroyed. For now, we will limit our territory in order to focus on rebuilding and growing our populations before expanding outward."_

The Admirals seemed a little unsure, but seemed willing to go along with the plan for the most part. They could have the Migrant Fleet at Vimire within about a month, due to how many ships were travelling there. But, their people may just have a future now.

_"Admiral Duren, I would like for you and an escort of your soldiers to come with us to the Citadel."_

"_T-the Citadel? Why?"_

_"I am going to negotiate a peace treaty, or a ceasefire at the least, with the Citadel Council. We've crippled their forces enough to where they won't bother us with our activities in the Terminus Systems. However, we need to show them that we have allies and we are not going to simply bow to them. While they did not exactly lose, they did not win this war either. Therefore we would have no reason to just bow down and give in to their rule. Neither should your race either, considering their abandonment of your race in a time of need."_

Duren wasn't sure if this was nessecarily a good idea. In his mind, all this would seem to do was antagonize the Council. He noticed Hurok was heading back with his group down the hallway, towards his dropship.

_"Order your Fleet to head towards Virmire. My ships will escort you there. Come, Admiral, and bring your escort with you. We have a peace treaty to achieve and an empire to rebuild."_

No race had ever defied the Citadel Council, but Admiral Duren'Rallen supposed there was a first for everything. And maybe, just maybe, the Quarian people had a future now. He just hoped he didn't come to regret this in the future.

* * *

><p><strong><em>06.08.2105 - 02:15 p.m Local Time<br>Sirius System  
>Terra Nova<br>Yukima City_**

The end was finally in sight. The Alliance had pushed the Rebel forces all the way back to the Colonial Capital. The fighting had been fierce and unforgiving, but the Alliance had the Rebellion in it's death throws. Support for the Rebellion had been completely lost when they resorted to using terror tactics on any Alliance sympathizers on Terra Nova, which was aired by just about every Alliance News Agency to every other colony.

The once magnificent city had turned into a burning ruin of its former glory. Building collapsed, and/or on fire. Bodies littered the streets. The normally crystal clear river that ran through the center of the city was now clouded and dirtied by the debris of collapsed buildings and one of the three bridges that had been destroyed.

But none of this matter right now. Lance Corporal Fredrick Williams just wanted this fight to end so he could go home to his girlfriend. He swore a long time ago that if he survived this, he would propose to her the moment he saw here.

Williams had been promoted just a week ago when Sgt Dias was killed by an IED on the road to Yukima City. His death had hit the group hard. Sure they lost Marines before Dias, but he had always done everything to keep them alive. His death had a profound impact on the Marines of Able Company. The 294th and the rest of the 31st Marines had been heavily involved in the Terra Nova Campaign, and had taken considerable casualties during the Alliance's march to Yukima City.

And now they were fighting in the Capital, fighting the last remnants of the 'Republic' trying to hold onto the Capital. Hopefully, the conflict's end was near.

* * *

><p>The street that Able Company was occupying was littered with debris and the scars of battle. Buildings had bullet and explosion holes riddling their structures. Some were burning and smoking slightly. Gunfire and explosions could be heard in the distance. Any civilians that had lived here were either gone or dead. The only living souls left in this street were the Marines of Able Company. The Rebels had been pushed back towards the Colonial Governor's Office, roughly two blocks away, where the Rebels were going to make their last stand.<p>

"Listen up, Marines!"

Williams turned to see Staff Sergeant James Hudson and his ODST squad walking up to the group, fully geared and combat ready. They always seemed like they were ready for a fight.

"We've been given the green light. All nearby units are to launch the assault on the Government District. We're moving out in 5 minutes."

The Marines picked themselves up and prepped their weapons, getting ready for what was more than likely to be the last major battle of this conflict. The speakers, the ones that still worked anyway, had been blaring none stop for the Rebels to surrender. Very few had surrender, but more than enough to help reveal key locations and strongholds that the Rebels had set up.

And now, the Marines were going to finish this fight once and for all. It was time to end the Battle of Terra Nova.

* * *

><p><em><strong>02:20 p.m.<strong>_

Artillery thundered in the distance, as military aircraft flew sorties overhead. In the streets, gunfire raged all throughout the Government District. Able Company and the ODST 7th Squad moved up along with a squad of M3A3 'Custer' MBTs, advancing up the streets slowly should there be any IEDs. And there typically was one or two.

The M3A3 'Custer' Main Battle Tank, is the last of a line of American-made tanks in service for the Alliance as a standard issue MBT. Entering service in 2082, the Custer is just one of three MBT designs that the Alliance uses at the moment, due to different national militarizes of the past having different design concepts. Equipped with a 140mm L55 Smoothbore Gun, 1 coaxial and 1 pintle-mounted 7.62 MMG, and one .50 cal HMG, the 'Custer' was designed to be able to engaged any and all adversaries and still come out on top. Armor thickness is 7 inches on the front and side-skirts, capable of withstand all but the absolute worst of anti-tank weapons. The 'Custer' is a formidable tank, but also an aging design, needing to be replaced along with the other tanks in service, The EU's 'Panther 2A4' and the Chinese 'Type-150A2'.

The 4-tank squad of 'Custers' advance in two columns of two up the large street that lead to the Government District. Their turrets and top mounted MGs scanned the buildings and rooftops for possible ambushers with RPGs. Able Company and 7th Squad moved up behind the tanks, using them as mobile cover in case an ambush did happen. They pushed up to an intersection, with one of the two intact bridges just ahead, along with Rebel territory.

"Anyone else getting a bad vibe from this street?" A marine suddenly spoke.

"Yeah. Williams, what do you think?"

Williams looked back at the two soldiers, "Lock it up. Doesn't matter. We'll see the Rebels soon enough, so keep your eyes trained for anything."

He turned back to the tanks just in time to see a massive explosion rock the lead Custer on the left as it was rounding a corner. The other tanks came to a halt and scanned around to see if there was an origin from where the shot came from or if it was an IED. Most of the Marines and ODST hit the dirt as they scanned for hostiles.

"Jesus fuck! What was that?!"

"Fucking IED. How's the crew? They okay?" Williams was more concerned about the crew inside than identifying what was probably an IED. The Custers were tough, but they weren't invincible.

_'Yea their saying fine, for the most part. Just shook up and pissed off. Tank tracks got taken out, though, over.' _One of the Tank Commanders spoke over the radio.

Williams sighed, "Sgt, your guys good?"

A few seconds passed before a reply came from the other side of the street, "Fuck no! Damn near shit myself. Motherfucking Assholes!" a middle finger was raised.

Okay, he was fine. Williams and the rest of Able Company had come to learn and understand 'Hudson Talk' as they had come to term it.

"Okay, everyone head towards the other side of the intersect and push towards the bridge. Get to that low-wall and hold that ground until Fox and Gamma Companies-"

Gunfire erupted from the other side of the river, bullets kicking up dirt and debris as they danced around the Alliance Marines.

* * *

><p>"Move! Fucking Move!" Hudson shouted as the Marines beelined for the low-wall, most not even bothering to return fire as it would do no good anyway if they weren't aiming properly. Williams and Hudson both slid into the wall as they took cover behind it. The Marines were safe behind it fore the most part, as it was thick concrete designed to withstand heavy cargo transport slamming into them without breaking.<p>

Now the Marines returned fire.

The combined fire of 120 Marines, plus 12 ODST, roared to life on the Alliance side of the bridge, sending hundreds of rounds of lead down towards the entrenched Rebels. The three working Custer tanks moved in behind the Marines and set up positions, before firing their own weapons at the Rebels. Three 140mm Guns thundered as the HE rounds soared across the river, create three massive explosions on buildings on the other side.

Williams fired away with his M392, sending 7.62mm rounds downrange. A few Marines dropped and were killed by an occasional lucky shot, but the Rebels' fire was mostly sporadic and inaccurate at best. Williams ducked down and spoke into his headset.

"294-Actual, this is Able Company! We're at Hurst Bridge. Enemy had control of the other side and is heavily dug in. 1 Tank knocked out, 7 KIA. Requesting air support,over."

_'Roger, Able. Three Pelicans are being diverted to your location, ETA 2 minutes. Fox and Gamma Companies are inbound as well, ETA 3 minutes, over.'_

"Copy that. Able Company, out!"

He popped back up and aimed at a three story house on the left side of the bridge, looking through the DMR's scope. He could see a couple Rebels working a heavy machine gun, firing down on the Marines' positions. He steadied his breath, lined up the shot and squeezed the trigger. The round flew straight and true, connecting center-mass with the Rebel mounting the machine gun.

The Rebel dropped dead, her companion panicked and fled the gun. MG neutralized.

"MG neutralized. Someone get some Target Designators aimed at those buildings so the Pelicans know where to shoot." Williams shouted, ducking back in cover as bullets chipped away at the concrete low-wall. The tanks fired again, three 140mm HE rounds sailing across and impacting against entrenched Rebel forces, creating a trio of explosions. Machine Guns fired away and pelted the enemy with numerous 7.62 and .50 cal bullets, killing several in the process.

Overhead, Williams heard the roar of three Pelican Dropships coming in to provide that air support. Three M370 Autocannons roared to life as multiple explosions rocked the far side of the river, pelting the Rebels and decimating their defenses.

_'Able Company, this is Overlord-3 lead. We'll be your air support for today, over.'_

"Roger that. Thanks for the assist. We'll call out targets for you, over."

_'Affirmative, Able. We'll be on standby, out.'_

The Rebels began to retreat when the Dropships arrived. At this point, both Fox and Gamma Company had arrived and were bolstering the Marines' strength on the bridge, laying down a continuous wall of suppressive fire on the Rebels. The Pelicans continue to barrage the Rebel positions with autocannon fire, until there were no more targets visible. The buildings and roads were smoldering ruins of themselves.

But Hurst Bridge belong to the Alliance.

* * *

><p>Lance Corporal Williams surveyed the destruction on the other side of Hurst Bridge, multiple buildings were collapsed or burning. Corpses littered the buildings and streets, some of which were not even recognizable. The stench of death was thick in the air, birds screeched or cawed as they flew overhead, waiting to scavenge on the abundant food source.<p>

"Don't think about it. It's the only advice I can give ya."

He turned to see SSgt. Hudson walking up to him. He glanced at the carnage before looking back at the young Lance Corporal.

"Hard not too. Seeing all this pointless death and destruction, all this suffering." His eyes narrowed, thinking about everyone whose died in this conflict.

"It never gets easier, I'll tell you that. Best thing you can do is try and block it out as best you can." Hudson put a hand on the young Marine's shoulder, patting it before motioning 7th Squad to move up.

Williams thought for a moment, before nodding. He couldn't change who died, but he could help keep others alive.

"Williams, it's incredible! You won't believe this." A Marine came running up shouting at him.

"What?"

"The Rebels are surrendering all across Yukima City. It's over!"

Williams eyes widened at this, while everyone else started cheering. They were surrendering? Didn't seem like something they do. It didn't matter to him. It was over. It was finally over. The Battle of Terra Nova had finally been won. Sure, there may be a few diehard holdouts for a couple weeks, but combat as a whole on the planet was effectively over.

For the first time in weeks, he sat down, leaned his head back on the low-wall, and smiled as he closed his eyes. He made it. He had survived, and now he had a wedding ring to go buy.

And now the long process of Occupation and Restoration of Terra Nova would commence.

* * *

><p><em><strong>06.20.2105 - 12:40 Standard Galactic Time<br>Serpent Nebula  
>Widow System<br>Citadel - Council Private Chambers**_

_"This isn't the type of news I like to hear, Councilors." _Tevos spoke as she poured herself a drink to ease her headache. She and the Councilors had learned of the Fall of Lorek the day after from the Batarian Ambassador, something which shocked the Councilors. Lorek was, in all but name, a Batarian Fortress and one of their most important Colonies in the Terminus Systems, if not the most. Supposedly, after the disasterous naval battle, the ground forces held out for 10 days before the Colony was lost.

And since the Naval Forces' defeat at Lorek, 6 more Batarian Colonies have fallen to the Covenant's Rampage, making the total number of Colonies lost to the Covenant at 21. The Hegemony had barely 14 Colonies left now, and not enough ships to defend them all.

_"Councilor Tevos, I'll be the first to admit that we may have underestimated the Covenant-"_

_"Underestimated?!"_

_"-But, we can't simply just scream for peace and hope they'll listen. The 22nd Patrol Fleet tried that, Spirits rest their souls, and look what happened. We need to mobilize our fleets and send them in, that's the only way we're going to end this fight and win." _Councilor Hyleen finished, maintaining his calm demeanor. In truth, he was livid and raging on the inside. Two Patrol Fleets, that had even been reinforced, had been utterly annihilated by the Covenant. He wanted payback.

_"Councilor Hyleen, if you do that, then the entire Terminus System will raise arms against us. Something we can't afford at the moment. We can't fight a two front war of such scale. Especially if it takes us 5 or 6 Cruisers just to take down one of the Covenant ships." _Councilor Kilish piped in, knowing full well that the Turian was wanting vengeance for the two Turian Fleets destroyed by the Covenant.

_"The time has come, we need to negotiate a peace treaty with the Covenant. This conflict could spill over to our territory before too long, something I'm not willing to take a chance on." _Kilish had brought up another good point. The Covenant knew that the Council was in this war as well, so how long would it be before the Covenant decided to push into Citadel Space?

A sudden message on all three of their Omni-tools, marked urgent, drew their attention. The Councilors tapped onto their Omni-tools, to hear a young Asari's voice speak out, _"Councilors, forgive the intrusion. I know you stated that you were not to be disturbed, but our long range sensors are picking up several massive energy readings. They're beyond anything we've ever seen before."_

Hyleen tapped a few commands in on his Omni-tool and the chat was transferred over to the large television screen on the wall. The image of a purple colored Asari appeared on screen, in one of the Citadel's many long range scanner rooms. _"What's going on?" _Hyleen spoke.

_"Not even 2 minutes ago, we picked up several strange readings on the long range scanner, not matching any know signatures in our databases. The number is current at 12 unique signatures, and their energy outputs are rising. We have the Citadel Defense Fleet on standby. We've... Hold on."_

The screen suddenly changed to a view of space, towards the mass relay. The Citadel Defense Fleet, made up of some 80 Cruisers and Dreadnoughts, moved into position waiting for whatever was about to come through. The comms came alive with chatter from the various ships and scanner rooms.

_'Anyone else seeing those tiny white dots?'_

_'Affirmative, we see them. They have to be no more than 20,000 km out. What are they?'_

_'Unknown, but each one's putting out more energy than the entire Defense Fleet. Be on gua-'_

The 12 white dot expanded into massive portals, into what looked like oblivion. All three of the Councilors horridly realized what these portals were, they had seen enough reports to know what they were.

12 Covenant warships exited slipspace just 20,000 km from the Capital of the Galactic Government. The Covenant were at the Citadel.

1 Assualt Carrier, 2 Battleships, 3 Heavy Cruisers, and 6 Battlecruisers exited slipspace in near perfect formation. The Councilors collectively dropped their mouths in pure awe at the size of the massive warships. _"Goddess..." _was all Councilor Tevos could mutter out.

Hyleen was silent, wondering what the Covenant was going to do next. Had they intentionally come here, or did they stumble upon the Citadel by accident?

Kilish knew that if this turned into a fight, the Citadel Defense Fleet would lose several ships. Sure, they may defeat this Covenant Fleet, but he pictured the Defense Fleet would lose at least half of their ships before that. He hoped it wouldn't come to that, or 13 million inhabitants would be in peril.

_'All ships, Covenant presence confirmed! Prepare to fire on my ma-'_

_'Wait! Councilors, we're being hailed by the Covenant warships.'_

The Councilors looked at one another, unsure of what the Covenant wanted. They weren't exactly known for their communication skills.

Finally, Tevos spoke up, _"Patch them through."_

* * *

><p>A few seconds passed on the screen, before it changed to the image of a large and imposing Sangheili warrior, clanned in dark golden armor with red steaks on the arms and legs of the armor, as well as the center of its helmet. His entire body language spoke power and dominance.<p>

This must be the infamous Commander of the Covenant Fleets. The notorious Hurok Wattinree.

The Sangheili seemed to be observing the Councilors, studying their appearance. Then, after a few more seconds of this silence, the Sangheili spoke.

_'Is this the Citadel Council I am speaking to?' _The Sangheili's voice was deep and almost a growl.

_"It is." _Hyleen was the first to speak up.

The Sangheili stood a little straighter, flaring its nostrils.

_'I am Hurok Wattinree, Supreme Commander of the Covenant Fleet of Divine Fury.'_

'Divine Fury, huh? Fitting name.' was pretty much the thought of all three Councilors. Tevos spoke next, _"And why are you here, Commander."_

_'I am here to negotiate a peace treaty between the Covenant and the Citadel Races, as was proposed by your Turian Admiral.'_

This shocked the Councilors. They were here for peace? 'Thank the Goddess.' Tevos thought. Hyleen was somewhat relieved, too, but a still a little irritated by the fact that he wouldn't get to put the Covenant in their place for destroying two Turian Fleets. Kilish, was still a little disappointed that they weren't able to get their hands on any Covenant Tech, but they might be able to achieve through trade what they couldn't do through war.

_"Very well, Commander. We'll prepped a docking bay for one of your transports to land." _

_'Understood, I will depart for the transport, now.'_

The line was disconnected, and the screen went black. Tevos breathed a signed a relief. _"Well, I guess we better get ready for this Peace Conference."_

_"Yes, Kilish, we should. Should we bring along the Batarian Ambassador?" _Hyleen asked.

_"Yes. They'll more than likely want a say in the negotiation, but in all honesty, they're not in any position to demand anything from them. But, at the very least, we will restore peace to the Terminus Systems." _Tevos responded, hoping that is exactly what will happen here today. Peace would be negotiated, the Covenant would join the Citadel as every other race has before them, and everything will return back to normal.

* * *

><p><em><strong>1 hour later<br>Presidium Wards - C-Sec Security Checkpoint before entering the Citadel Tower**_

Four Turian C-Sec Officers were guarding a checkpoint that people had to go through before they entered the Citadel Tower, the heart of the Galactic Government. They had already been informed of the Covenant's arrival on the Citadel, so they were prepared in advance to receive the Covenant Diplomats that were on the way.

That being said, this still didn't prepare them for what they saw coming towards them.

A group of twelve was approaching the checkpoint, two of them were massive giants that stood over twelve feet tall and had what look like massive shields on their left arms. The Turian policemen were dumbfounded at the size of the creatures. By the Spirits, they were larger than an Elcor. And the other members of the Covenant were just as intimidating as the Mgalekgolo, save for maybe the Unggoy.

One of the Sangheili approached the group of C-Sec officers and spoke, _"We have arrived for the negotiations."_

_"R-right. If you'll each just follow me, We'll escort you to the Council Chambers."_

Normally, he would of asked them to surrender their weapons, but in honesty, he was certain would die in the process if he tried to even get just the Mgalekgolo to give up their weapons, so he kept his mouth shut and decided to just escort them up. Plus, if what he heard was correct, the Sangheili were the military commanders of the Covenant, so he was certain they would keep the giants in line.

* * *

><p><em><strong>1 Elevator Ride Later<br>**_

The elevator door opened to the Covenant diplomats, revealing a massive and open environment made up of several stories, and lots of colorful trees. Hurok observed his new environment, taking in beauty of this 'Council Chambers'. He also noticed the defensiveness of the chambers, noting several good sniper's nest and several positions to hold the enemy at bay at. If this turned into a fight, the C-Sec forces will have the upper ground no matter where they make their stand.

At least their shields and weapons would give them an advantage over C-Sec.

He had his troops equipped with the best weapons in the Covenant's arsenal. Needlers, Carbines, and a new variant of the Type-25 Plasma Rifle, the Type-51 Plasma Repeater. A new design from the forges, it was basically a Type-25 enlarged and with a faster rate of fire. They had tested the weapons for the first time on Lorek, and they performed rather well, but they didn't have alot of the new weapons, so their use is limited.

Hurok and the rest of the Covenant Soldiers moved up the stairs, continuing to observe their surroundings as they proceeded towards the Councilors, who were standing on an elevated platform. 'Obviously an intimidation technique. Show themselves as above whoever they're meeting.' Hurok thought. But it didn't impressed them.

Sangheili don't get intimidated. They're the ones who do the intimidating.

Hurok and his group stopped before the pedestals, the Citadel Councilors looking down on him and his soldiers. He simply stared right back, unflinching and unmoved. After a few moments of this staredown, Councilor Tevos spoke with a small smile.

* * *

><p><em>"Greetings. Welcome to the Citadel. I am Councilor Tevos of the Asari Republics, to my left is Councilor Hyleen of the Turian Hierarchy, and to my right is Councilor Kilish of the Salarian Union. On behalf of the entire Citadel Races, we're happy to have you here on the Citadel to ensure peace between us."<em>

Hurok looked around the room, taking note of everyone's nervous expression of his group. He could feel the tension in the air, the anxiousness. He knew their 'C-Sec' was just waiting for them to make a wrong decision, so that they could open fire and fight them.

After a moment, he replied, _"Somehow, I doubt this."_

Tevos' smile disappeared with that statement, but recomposed herself, _"Regardless, now that you are here, we can commence with negotiating a peace. While all participants suffered some significant casualties, the Batarians have suffered worse than any other due to your apparent declaration of holy war against them. You've destroyed 21 of their colonies and It's estimated that some 42 million Batarians have lost their lives."_

_"The Turians haven't lost anywhere near this number, but our casualties were still pretty significant. In the Battle of Lorek, the 151st Legion, which numbered some 15,000 strong, was reduced to less than 300 soldiers. Including the loss of two Patrol Fleets, our casualties are listed at roughly 33,000. While again, nothing compared to the Batarians, it's still a large number of lives lost." _Councilor Hyleen spoke.

_"While the Asari nor the Salarians have lost any lives, this is still a grave situation that concerns the entire Galactic community. How has the Covenant faired in this conflict?" _Tevos asked.

_"We've lost a little over 250,000 Warriors, but nothing we can't replace."_

_"Very well. In terms of reparation, how much will the Covenant provide the Batarians for the loss of so many Colonies and lives?" _

_"None." _Hurok simply spoke, eyes narrowing.

The Councilors were taken aback by this. None?!

_"What do you mean none? You killed millions of innocent men, women, and children. Burned and destroyed nearly two dozen Colonies in a war you started, and you're telling us that you won't provide any form of compensation to help the Batarians rebuild?!" _Tevos spoke, almost shouting. She was now visibly angry, these upstart were not just being horrid, they were basically stating that they had killed millions and could care less.

_"Why in the name of the Forerunners would we help our enemy rebuild if they're not being incorporated into our Covenant? It makes no sense. And as for your claim of us starting this war, we did not. We entered a system to have the Batarian's Fleet open fire upon us. We did not know why at first, but the accidentally colliding with a foreign ship isn't a justification for out right opening fire on a unknown species. The Batarians have themselves and themselves only to blame for their current state." _

_"So instead of setting a better example-" _Kilish began.

_"You mean giving in to your petty demands and then basically submitting to your rule, which we won't, then I'm afraid that's not going to happen. I came here to agree to an end of hostilities, nothing more. We will not offer any compensation to the Batarians and we will not join your Citadel as a bunch of slaves dependent on you."_

_"No race have ever decline an offer to join the Citadel Races." _Councilor Hyleen spoke out, his voice low and threatening.

Hurok looked over to the Turian, _"And no enemy... has ever withstood our might." _He growled out, his deep and dark voice sending chills down everyone's spines.

* * *

><p>In the crowd, a Krogan Battlemaster, arms crossed, was watching the events unfold with a smirk, chuckling softly, <em>"This guy looks like he's fun to kill shit with."<em>

* * *

><p>Councilor Hyleen was about to retort, but Kilish beat him to it, <em>"If we agree to a simple peace treaty, will you agree to stop fighting and killing any members of the Citadel Races." <em>

_"Yes. No more of our forces will engage yours. We will also release the Turian Prisoners we capture during our Campaign on Lorek."_

Hyleen was shocked by this sudden revelation, _"You capture some of our soldiers?"_

_"Yes. About 1,200 in total, including the Admiral of the 22nd Fleet. We have a ship that's in route to your homeworld to return them."_

_"T-thank you. You have the gratitude of many Turians for this kindness."_

_"The last thing left to discuss is Territory. We have decided to colonize three areas in the Terminus Systems. They are called Sentry Omega, Attican Beta, and the Armstrong Nebula. We will use these to rebuild and set them up as area to use to conduct trade with local powers."_

The Councilors were disappointed that they were going to lose Virmire, but better they lose a potential Garden Colony than possibly millions of more lives, so none of them spoke up against this. They could always find more Garden Worlds and colonies in the future.

_"Very well. If there is nothing more to discuss, then let us proceed to sign the Peace Treaty officially ending the Citadel-Covenant War and return the galaxy to peace once more."_

Hurok, and Kilish, doubted that this would be the last time the Citadel and the Covenant would clash, but for now, peace was achieved. Now, Hurok needed to focus on rebuilding and restoring the Covenant to its rightful place as a superpower for the gods.

* * *

><p><strong><em>2 Hours Later - Presidium <em>**

The event was largely ceremonial and publicly broadcast, much to the annoyance of Hurok, but the Peace Treaty was signed. While he had originally planned on introducing the Quarians as the Covenant's newest member race, he had decided against it. In truth, it wasn't any of the Council's business if they were so quick to abandon the Quarians in their time of need.

This was all water under the bridge, however, and now Hurok and his group proceeded back to the Phantom in order to leave the Citadel and return home.

The Presidium was a large and vast space where the ambassadors of the Citadel Races kept residence and went about their duties. Numerous shops, restaurants, and recreational facilities dotted the Presidium serving its wealthy residents who lived and worked throughout the sector. Lush trees and garden added a serene beauty to the sector. Hurok,though, wasn't interested in observing anymore of the Citadel and just wished to return to his ship.

_"Hell of a show you gave everybody back there."_

Hurok turned to face the source of this voice, revealing itself to be a Krogan donned in Dark Maroon battle armor. The Krogan was smiling and looking right at the Sangheili Supreme Commander. Hurok was aware of the Krogan's... 'Fight-happy' nature, and this Krogan's body language was stating that he was looking for one.

_"I was not there to amuse."_

_"Nor did I figure you were. But, nevertheless, you've definitely gotten my attention. Seen quite a few videos of your Warriors in action. You've definitely earned the respect of a lot of Krogan. But I wanted to meet you in person, get a look at the Commander of this Covenant, see what he's made of."_

The Krogan walked all the way over to the Sangheili, coming face to face with Hurok.

Hurok growled, _"If you're attempting to intimidate me or threaten me, I would advice you didn't and walked away."_

Surprisingly, the Krogan raised his hands up defensively, chuckling, _"No, no. You got all wrong. I didn't come here to fight. I came here just to say that anyone who has the ability to go tell the Citadel Council to basically go fuck itself and get away with it... well, you've got the respect of a lot of Krogan that would love to get in on some future action you guys may have planned for the future, me included."_

Hurok tilted his head slightly, _"Are you... offering your service to the Covenant?"_

_"Yea, pretty much, as are a lot of Krogan on this station. Just give us a shout if you got a job for us. We're not cheap, but we do get the job done. And I would love to get my hands on one of those plasma weapons of yours. Just thought I would pass the message along."_

And with that, the Krogan walked off. Hurok watched the Krogan leave, before speaking up once more, _"What is your name, Krogan?"_

The Krogan turned, _"And why do you want to know?"_

_"Because I might just have a job for you and your fellow Krogan that is right up your alley."_

The Krogan smiled, and turned to completely face the Sangheili warrior, smiling as he spoke.

_"Wrex. My name is Urdnot Wrex. So what's the job?"_

* * *

><p><em>Priority Message__\  
>To: Councilor Kilish\  
>From: __STG Black Ops: 5th & 6th Battalions[]Jerlys System, Terminus Systems\  
>Operation: Revelations\  
><em>_/Security Level: OMEGA\_

_/Message Details:_

_Councilor Kilish, we have some startling developments have have been made at the Facility. _

_First off, is that we have completed our measurments of the Facility and have found that it is over 75 km in length. It is massive and the amount of untold treasures found here could advance the the Citadel Races by hundreds if not thousands of years. However, we have encountered some serious obstacles along the way._

_We have concluded that there is some kind of highly advance AI controlling the facility and trying to impede our progress. Every new area we're able to unlock, will be locked right back down within a couple days. The VI drones are increasing in their ferocity of their attacks, and we have lost several good men in the process. Their behavior is rather odd. It is as if there's something here they don't want us to find. One such discovery we found they fought fiercely to keep from us._

_In one room of the facility that we've explored, we found a giant square tube that was filled with several small creatures that look like a gasbag with roots as legs. They're strange looking creatures, things I have never seen before. _

_After losing several men to the Drones, we secured the tubes and moved them back to our research center set up on the Facility. However, we need more men in order to effectively secure the site, the drones are very effective at impeding our process, and we have only been able to explore the 15% of the facility that we have already unlocked. But, we have secured many interesting pieces of technology and would be able to conduct more efficient research if we had at least 3 more battalions of STG._

_Other than this, I have nothing else to report to you, but will continue to send bi-weekly reports to you._

_End Message\_

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><p><strong>And that is it. Hope you enjoyed. Lemme know your thoughts and opinions in the reviews or feel free to ask questions via PM. As you know, I welcome constructive criticism, so by all means, tell me if I screwed something up.<strong>

**I am going to start work on a Codex to explain what happened in the 10 year jump between chapters, as well as explain Hurok's sudden promotion to Supreme Commander. It will also go a little more in depth as to certain events, such as the Terra Nova Campaign or the Fall of Lorek. **

**Which means unfortunately, that since I'm now working on two projects, the rate in which chapters are published will be slowed by a little, but not too much :)**

**Anyway, I hope yall enjoyed and I'll see ya next time.**


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